LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


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PRESENTED  BY 

DUNCAN  AND 

FREDRIKA  BRENT 


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PREFACE 

DISHOP  BURNETT'S  narrative  of  the  re- 
markable passages  in  the  life  of  the  very 
celebrated  Earl  of  Rochester  has  been  greatly 
valued,  not  only  as  an  elegant  composition,  but  as  a 
lesson  of  instruction  to  all  mankind.  The  latter  of 
these  honours,  to  a  certain  extent,  I  may  venture  to 
claim  as  the  result  of  this  sketch — at  all  events  such 
is,  in  part,  its  design ;  and  as  no  subject  is  so 
interesting  to  man  as  man,  I  have  a  good  theme  for 
my  pen,  inasmuch  as  there  is  one  present  to  my 
mind  whose  equal,  as  a  private  English  gentleman, 
the  world  never  before  saw,  neither  is  it,  for  some 
reasons,  desirable  the  world  should  ever  again  see. 
My  only  fear  is,  that  I  may  be  deficient  in  strength 
of  pencil  to  draw  the  picture  to  the  life,  and  to 
represent  the  anomaly  in  human  nature  which 
the  character  of  the  late  John  Mytton  presents  ; 
at  one  time,  an  honour  to  his  nature  ;  at 
another,  a  satire  on  humanity.  What  more 
can  be  done,  than  to  strike  the  balance  with 
an    even    hand  ?     and    as    the    brightness    of   the 


vi  PREFACE 

sun  hides  its  blemishes,  let  me  hope  the  greater 
part  of  his  faults  will  be  lost  amidst  the  virtues 
with  which  they  are  mingled.  At  all  events, 
my  purpose  is  not  to  hold  up  the  torch  to  the 
failings  of  my  old  and  never-forsaken  friend — my 
chief  object  being  to  account  for  them,  and  leave 
his  virtues  to  speak  for  themselves.  I  owe 
him  pity  on  the  score  of  human  nature ;  he 
claims  it  by  his  own  acts  and  deeds ;  and,  above 
all,  by  one  act  of  Him  to  whose  will  all 
men  must  bow,  and  by  whom  all  men's  deeds 
will  be  weighed.  Let  not  the  lash  of  censure, 
then,  fall  too  heavy  upon  one  who  himself 
carried  charity  to  excess !  Let  the  greatness 
of  his  fall  be  unto  him  as  a  shield ;  let  it  be 
remembered  he  died  in  a  prison,  an  epitome 
of  human  misery !  A  glance  over  his  history, 
however,  may  not  be  unprofitable ;  it  will 
"  point  a  moral,"  if  it  do  not  "  adorn  a 
tale." 

But  it  may  be  objected  that  I  am  not  the  person 
fitted  to  perform  this  task  ;  for,  "  where  is  the  man," 
says  Johnson,  "  who  can  confine  himself  to  the 
exact  balance  of  justice  when  his  own  feelings  are 
unwittingly  thrown  into  the  scale  ? "  It  is  true  my 
regard  for  the  late  Mr.  Mytton  was  won  and 
secured    by    many    sterling    acts    of   kindness    and 


PREFACE  vii 

friendship ;  and  it  is  also  true,  that  friendship  is 
not  always  the  sequel  of  obligation.  I  am  proud 
to  assert  I  do  not  come  within  this  exception ;  and 
pledging  myself  to  saying  nothing  that  is  false, 
rather  than  all  that  is  true,  I  think  I  can  produce 
these  two  results : — First,  I  shall  unload  the 
memory  of  a  man  I  shall  never  be  ashamed  to  call 
my  friend,  of  several  weighty  imputations  which  now 
rest  upon  it  unjustly ;  and  secondly,  I  shall  show, 
that  the  boldest  efforts  of  the  human  imagination 
cannot  much  exceed  the  romance  of  real  life. 

NIMROD 

Calais,  1835 


CONTENTS 


PART  I. 


Pedigree  of  Mr.  Mytton — His  original  name — His 
contest  for  the  county  of  Salop — His  ancestor 
Thomas  Mytton — Halston  described — Extent 
of  Mr.  Mytton's  property,  and  its  various  situ- 
ations— His  education — Why  called  Mango — 
Enters  the  army — His  doings  at  Calais  when  in 
the  7th  Hussars — His  first  marriage — His  sister, 
her  character — His  person  and  mind  described 
— His  pugnacious  disposition — His  dress — His 
method  of  following  wildfowl — His  feats  in 
riding  the  road,  and  his  walking — His  powers 
of  digestion — His  daring  exploits,  putting  his 
life  to  hazard — Upsets  a  friend  in  a  gig — His 
wonderful  escapes  in  carriages — His  indifference 
to  pain — Is  taken  for  a  tailor  with  Lord  Derby's 
hounds — His  treatment  of  a  Jew  money-lender 
— His  extraordinary  frolics  with  his  chaplain, 
his  doctor,  a  bear,  a  horse-dealer,  a  filly  in 
training,  dogs,  foxes,  &c.  —  An  evening  at 
Halston — His  contest  with  a  ferocious  dog — His 
reason  for  selling  an  old  family  estate — His 
general  character — His  establishment  at  Halston 
— Amount  of  his  expenditure — His  fox-hounds, 


CONTENTS 

his  racing  establishment,  his  game  preserves, 
his  cellars,  and  his  wardrobe — "  Light  come, 
light  go"  —  His  gambling  —  Only  one  John 
Mytton — His  bill  for  pheasants,  &c.  —  The 
Halston  Chaplain,  his  character,  his  death. 


PART  II 55 

With  whom  compared — His  amours — His  popularity, 
and  its  rapid  decline — His  excessive  drinking, 
and  its  influence  on  his  character  and  health — 
His  toilette — His  generous  conduct  towards  his 
mother — His  philanthropy  carried  to  excess — 
His  talents — His  last  contest  for  the  borough  of 
Shrewsbury  —  A  capital  electioneering  squib 
relating  to  the  same — His  politics — His  farming 
— His  timber — His  planting — Asa  sportsman — 
As  a  horseman — His  shooting — His  racing — 
His  race-horse  Euphrates — His  cups — His  start 
and  progress  on  the  Turf  —  His  handsome 
conduct  towards  his  jockey  —  His  second 
marriage — His  conduct  in  the  marriage  state — 
As  a  husband,  and  a  father — His  autograph. 


PART  III 119 

The  breaking  up  of  his  establishment  at  Halston — 
His  arrival  at  Calais,  and  his  extraordinary 
proceedings  whilst  there — Nearly  loses  his  life 
by  setting  fire  to  his  shirt  to  frighten  away  the 
hiccup — His    mind    becomes   disordered  by  his 


CONTENTS  xi 

sufferings — Extraordinary  scenes  witnessed  by 
his  attendants — Drinks  eau  de  Cologne — Gets 
better  and  goes  into  the  country  with  the  Author 
— Gets  quite  well,  but  relapses  into  his  habits  of 
dissipation — Is  removed  to  England,  and  hence 
his  death  warrant — Visits  Halston,  and  thrown 
into  Shrewsbury  jail — His  conduct  there,  and  his 
former  relation  to  the  jailer — Removed  to  the 
King's  Bench— Released,  and  returns  to  Calais 
with  a  female — His  extraordinary  self-intro- 
duction to  her — Their  arrival  together  at  Calais 
— His  most  extraordinary  proceedings  whilst 
there — His  return  to  England — His  melancholy 
death  in  the  Bench — His  funeral — His  will — 
Reflections  on  the  same  by  the  Author — His 
Epitaph  by  ditto. 


PART  IV 175 

The  Author's  allusion  to  a  second  edition  of  Mr. 
Mytton's  Life — By  whom  some  of  the  addi- 
tional anecdotes  have  been  furnished  to  him — 
Mr.  Mytton's  extraordinary  feats  on  horseback 
— His  frolics — With  waggon  horses — With  a 
bag  fox — With  skates — With  rats  on  the  ice — 
With  herons — With  a  badger — With  foxes  in 
the  bar  of  an  inn  at  his  election  for  the  county 
of  Salop — With  a  broken-kneed  horse,  and  an 
old  woman — With  a  flannel  petticoat — With 
his  chaplain  on  his  road  to  church — -With  a 
horse-breaker — With  a  Shrewsbury  tradesman 
— His  row  at  a  hell — His  extraordinary  shooting 


xii  CONTENTS 

with  a  rifle — Extraordinary  performances  after 
hounds — Swimming  the  river  Severn,  &c. — 
Marvellous  exploit  in  a  tandem  by  moonlight 
— Ditto  in  a  gig  with  the  Author — His  gig 
carried  over  Halston  lodge  gate — A  parallel 
instance  to  it  at  Wrexham — Sale  of  sporting 
implements  at  Halston — Heron  shooting — The 
Shavington  Day  ;  "  Now  for  the  honour  of 
Shropshire  !  " — Description  of  the  racing  stakes 
at  ditto — Number  of  the  stakes  and  plates  won 
— Monody  on  his  death,  by  Tom  Moody. 


LIST   OF   THE   PLATES 

NO  PAGE 

Title,  i. — "Well   done,   Neck   or  Nothing;    you 

are  not  a  bad  one  to  breed  from  "  .     188 
2. — A  Nick,  or  the  nearest  way  home  .         6 

3. — Wild  duck  shooting  ....  17 
4. — "What!  never  upset  in  a  gig  ?" .  .  21 
5. — "  I  wonder  whether  he  is  a  good  timber- 
jumper !  "  .  .  .  .  .22 
6. — The  "Meet"  with  Lord  Derby's  stag- 
hounds  .....  25 
7. — "  Stand  and  deliver  "  .  .  .  .26 
8. — "Tally  ho!  Tally  ho  !"  a  new  hunter .  27 
9. — The  Oaks  filly  .....  30 
10, — "  Light  come,  light  go  "  ...  42 
n. — On  Baronet  clears  nine  yards  of  water  .       82 

12 "D — n  this  hiccup  !"  .         .         .         .     127 

13. — A  h — 11  of  a  row  in  a  hell.     Mytton 

shows  fight  .  .  .  .  .186 

14. — Swims  the  Severn  at  Uppington  Ferry  .     188 
15. — How    to    cross    a  country    comfortably 

after  dinner  .  .  .  .  .190 

16. — Heron    shooting:    a  cooler  after  a  big 

drink    ......      197 

xiii 


xiv  LIST  OF  THE  PLATES 

No. 
Title.  17. — "A  Squire  trap,  by  Jove!  A  little 
more  and  I  should  have  done  it "  . 
18. — "Now  for  the  honour  of  Shropshire." 
The  Shavington  Day;  a  trial  of 
rival  packs,  and  consequently  of 
rival  horsemen 


THE 

LIFE    AND    DEATH 

OF    THE     LATE 

JOHN    MYTTON,    Esq. 

OF    HALSTON,    SHROPSHIRE 

FORMERLY  M.P.  FOR  SHREWSBURY;  HIGH  SHERIFF  FOR  THE 

COUNTIES  OF  SALOP  AND  MERIONETH,  AND  MAJOR  OF 

THE  NORTH  SHROPSHIRE  YEOMANRY  CAVALRY 

PART   I 

"  Ubi  plura  nitent." — Hor. 

T  T  may  be  unnecessary,  perhaps,  to  go  beyond^w 
centuries  back  for  the  pedigree  of  John  Mytton. 
No  one,  I  believe,  ever  doubted  his  being  quite 
thoroughbred.  In  fact,  no  half-bred  one  could 
have  done  much  more  than  half  what  he  did  in  the 
space  of  his  short  life ;  but,  as  I  have  before  said 
of  him,  "  nil  •violentum  est  perpetuum  " — "  'tis  the 
pace  that  kills,"  and  he  was  no  exception  to  the 
rule.  It  having,  however,  been  stated  in  the  news- 
paper accounts  of  his  decease,  that  he  had  repre- 
sented the  ancient  borough  of  Shrewsbury  in  Par- 
i 


2  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

liament,  I  shall  merely  show  that,  if  the  ancient 
relation  of  his  family  to  a  town  of  which  their 
ancestors  had  been  inhabitants  and  burgesses  upwards 
of  five  centuries — in  addition  to  their  ample  estates 
in  its  immediate  neighbourhood — still  goes  for  any 
thing,  who  had  a  better  right  to  the  honour  than  he 
had  ?  Looking  back  into  the  history  of  Shrews- 
bury, we  find  the  borough  to  have  been  thus 
represented  : — 

A.  D.  1373  (reign  of  Edward  III.).  Reginold 
de  Mutton  (Mutton  was  the  original 
name)  and  Richard  de  Pontesbury, 
members. 

1377.  Reginold  de  Mutton  and  William  de 
Longenolne,  members. 

1472.  Thomas  Mutton  and  John  Hord,  members. 

1 49 1.  William  Mutton  and  Lawrence  Hosyer, 
members. 

1520.   Edmund  Cole  and  Adam  Mutton,  members. 

1 529.  Adam  Mutton  and  Robert  Dudley,  members. 

1554.  Thomas  Mytton  (now  first  so  called)  and 
Nicholas  Purcell,  members. 

1690.  Richard  Mytton  and  Hon,  Andrew  New- 
port, members. 

1 698.   Richard  Mytton  and  John  Kynaston,  members. 

1701.  Ditto  ditto  ditto. 

1702.  Ditto  ditto  ditto. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  3 

1705.  Richard MyttonandJohnKynaston, members. 
1 710.  Ditto  and EdwardCresset,Esq.,  ditto.1 
1734.  John  Mytton,  grandfather  to  the  subject  of 
this  memoir,  stood  a  severe  contest  for 
the  Borough,  but  was  defeated  by  Sir 
Richard  Corbet,  Bart.,  and  William 
Kynaston,  Esq. ;  and  the  late  John 
Mytton,  Esq.,  was  elected  member, 
January  14,  18 19,  having  been  opposed 
by  Panton  Corbet,  Esq.,  who  soon 
resigned  the  contest.  Numbers — Mytton, 
384;  Corbet,  287. 

In  so  highly  an  aristocratic  county  as  Shropshire, 
and  one  celebrated  for  its  electioneering  contentions, 
these  extracts  may  be  sufficient  to  exhibit  the 
parliamentary  pretensions  of  this  ancient  family,  and 
of  my  late  departed  friend. 

In  1 480,  Thomas  Mytton  was  high  sheriff  for 
Shropshire,  and  apprehended  the  Duke  of  Bucking- 
ham, who  had  rebelled  against  Richard  the  Third, 
and  conducted  him  to  Salisbury,  where,  as  his  historian 

1  This  election  was  the  result  of  a  very  severe  contest. 
The  following  was  the  final  state  of  the  poll: — Mytton, 
224;  Edward  Cresset  (ancestor  of  Cresset  Pelham,  Esq., 
late  M.P.  for  the  county),  222  ;  Thomas  Jones  (ancestor 
of  Sir  Tyrwhitt  Jones,  Bart.),  177  ;  Sir  Edward  Leighton, 
Bart.,  131 


4  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

relates,  he  was  instantly  tried,  condemned,  and  exe- 
cuted according  to  the  summary  method  practised  in 
those  ages.  His  reward  for  this  very  important 
service  is  recorded  in  the  Harleian  MSS.,  No. 
433  ;  in  which  is  an  abstract  of  the  Letters  Patent, 
whereby  "  King  Richard  the  Third  grants  to  his 
trusty  and  well-beloved  Squire,  Thomas  Mytton, 
and  to  his  heirs  male,  the  Castle  and  Lordship  of 
Cawes,  and  all  appurtenances  thereto,  amounting 
to  the  value  of  fifty  pounds,  and  late  belonging  to 
our  rebel  and  traitor,  the  late  Duke  of  Bucking- 
ham." This  Thomas  Mytton  married  one  of  the 
daughters  of  Sir  John  Burgh,  and  was  an  immediate 
ancestor  of  the  subject  of  this  memoir. 

As  has  been  shown,  the  first  conspicuous  ancestor 
of  this  family  was,  Reginold  de  Mutton,  of  Weston 
Lizard,  Shropshire,  now  represented  through  the 
Wilbrahams  and  Newports  by  the  present  Earl  of 
Bradford;  and  it  is  in  1549  that  we  first  find  it 
seated  at  Halston,  when  Sir  Robert  Townsend  is 
stated  to  have  rented  Mr.  Mytton's  large  mansion 
at  Cotow,  he — Mr.  Mytton — having  removed  to 
his  more  recent  purchase  at  Halston — or,  as  it 
was  then  called,  Holy  Stone,  much  celebrated  in 
history  as  the  scene  of  bloody  deeds  in  the  reign  of 
the  first  Richard.  At  this  ancient  mansion  there 
was  a  preceptory  of  Knights  Templars,  and  after- 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  5 

wards  of  the  Knights  Hospitallers,  under  a  grant 
from  Queen  Elizabeth  (who  confirmed  the  aliena- 
tion of  the  property  from  the  Knights  of  St.  John 
of  Jerusalem,  to  whom  it  was  given  by  an  Earl  of 
Arundel  who  possessed  it  after  the  Norman 
conquest),  when  purchased,  or  rather  exchanged 
for,  by  Edward  Mytton  of  Habberley.  There  was 
also  formerly  an  abbey  in  the  village  of  Halston, 
taken  down  more  than  a  century  ago  ;  but  there  is 
the  church  or  chapel  of  Halston  now  standing  on 
the  domain,  exempt  from  Episcopal  jurisdiction, 
and  without  any  other  revenue  than  what  the 
Chaplain  may  be  allowed  by  the  owner  of  it. 

Having  described  ancient,  I  proceed  to  modern 
Halston ;  and,  unless  very  fastidious  indeed,  my 
readers  will  agree  with  me  in  thinking  that  it  ought 
to  satisfy  the  desires  of  every  moderate  man.  In 
the  first  place,  its  location  is  good.  Away  from 
any  great  road,  it  is  within  easy  reach  of  two — the 
London  and  Holyhead,  and  the  Shrewsbury  and 
Chester  —  without  being  subjected  to  the  incon- 
venience of  either ;  and  the  lodge-gates  open  upon 
an  excellent  cross  turnpike-road,  leading  from 
Oswestry  to  Ellesmere — distant,  three  miles  from 
the  former  town  and  five  from  the  latter.  Being 
situated  on  a  flat,  the  domain  is  deprived  of  some  of 
the  advantages  the  extremely  beautiful  country  by 


6  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

which  it  is  surrounded  affords,  but  still  the  tout 
ensemble  is  good.  In  the  front  of  the  mansion  is 
a  lawn  of  about  sixty  acres  of  prettily  diversified 
grass-land,  and  behind  it  is  a  tastily  laid-out  flower 
garden,  contiguous  to  a  fine  tract  of  meadow  land 
separated  from  it  by  a  deeply  sunken  fence  ;  and  a 
noble  sheet  of  water,  with  the  old  family  chapel  at 
the  head  of  it,  gives  a  good  finish  to  the  landscape. 
When  I  say  that  the  oak  is  the  weed  of  that  part  of 
our  island,  I  scarcely  need  add  that,  in  a  domain  of 
such  antiquity  as  Halston,  it  is — I  fear  I  must 
write  was — to  be  seen  in  its  full  majesty  of  form  ; 
and  no  estate  in  the  county  could  produce  finer  oaks 
than  those  which  adorned  the  Halston  woods.  I 
can  indeed  speak  to  the  fact  of  one  which  was  cut 
down,  about  eight  years  back,  containing  ten  tons 
of  timber,  without  top  or  lop !  The  plantations 
also,  all  made  by  the  late  Mr.  Mytton  and  to  the 
extent  of  three  miles,  nearly  encircle  the  domain, 
and  afford  shelter  to  the  superfluity  of  game  which 
it  was  his  ambition  to  possess. 

The  mansion  house,  without  pretensions 
to  magnificence,  is  replete  with  every  comfort 
and  convenience  for  a  country  gentleman's 
establishment ;  and  is  much  more  commodious 
than  it  appears  to  be,  from  the  offices  being 
for     the      most      part      detached.       It      contains 


>5 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  7 

a  hall  in  which  there  was  a  billiard  table,  with  a 
library  on  one  side  and  Mr.  Mytton's  dressing- 
room  on  the  other ;  and  an  excellent  dining-  and 
two  drawing-rooms,  connected  with  each  other 
by  double  doors,  complete  the  down-stairs  suite. 
There  also  was  —  oh !  I  write  that  word  with 
sorrow — a  small  but  excellent  collection  of  pictures, 
which  the  catalogue  of  them  showed  had  been 
collected  with  great  care,  as  ornaments  to  these, 
now  naked,  walls ;  and  a  thousand  guineas  were 
offered,  in  my  presence,  for  one  of  them,1  but 
nobly  refused  by  the  owner  of  it.  The  gardens 
are  most  excellent,  and,  to  complete  the  sketch  of 
this,  to  me,  sort  of  earthly  paradise,  there  is  in  the 
grounds  surrounding  the  house,  not  only  a  rookery, 
but  a  heronry — very  rare  in  that  part  of  the  world 
— and  every  description  of  shooting  and  fishing 
that  the  follower  of  such  sports  could  require. 
The  surrounding  country  is  also  quite  upon  a  par 
with  the  "provincials  " — if  not  better  than  most — 
for  either  fox-hounds  or  harriers. 

The  property  of  the  late  Mr.  Mytton  has  been  a 
good  dealexaggerated,  both  as  regards  the  annual  value 
of  his  estates  and  the  sum  accumulated  in  his  minority, 
which  was  to  the  extent  of  seventeen  years.  I  have 
good  reason  to  believe  that  the  former  (though  it 
1  Joseph  escaping  from  Potiphar's  wife. 


8  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

increased  afterwards)  was  under  ten  thousand  a  year, 
and  that  the  latter  amounted  to  about  ^60,000. 
Independently  of  the  Halston  and  Habberly  estates, 
which  are  in  entail,  there  were  three  other  properties 
in  Shropshire,  and  one  in  North  Wales  of  about 
^800  per  annum,  with  a  manor  and  right  of  free 
warren,  each  very  rare  in  the  Principality,  and  the 
latter  very  rare  everywhere  ;  but,  alas,  they  are  lost 
in  the  general  wreck.  The  Welch  domain  will  be 
described  when  I  touch  on  the  subject  of  shooting. 

Having  done  with  the  mansion,  we  will  now 
proceed  to  the  proprietor  of  it,  who,  being  born  on 
the  30th  of  Sept.  1796,  was  left  fatherless  before 
he  was  two  years  old ;  and,  as  if  there  was  a 
disposition  in  his  predecessors  to  drop  into  an  early 
grave,  neither  his  great  grandfather  nor  his  grand- 
father lived  to  see  a  son  come  of  age.  As  I  can 
only  just  remember  the  father  of  the  late  Mr. 
Mytton,  I  am  unable  to  estimate,  in  this  in- 
dividual instance,  the  loss  of  a  father  to  a  son, 
in  his  infant  state  ;  but  in  most  cases,  with 
heirs  to  large  estates,  it  is  irreparable.  It  is 
written  of  the  Gracchi,  that  they  were  educated 
" non   tarn  in  gremio    quam   in   sermone   mains"  ;l 

1  It  is  difficult  to  render  this  passage  literally ;  but  it 
implies  that  the  Gracchi  were  not  only  nursed,  but  in 
part  educated,  by  their  mother. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  9 

and,  although  it  is  not  every  mother  that  is  a 
Sempronia,  their  history  informs  us  they  were  very 
little  the  better  for  it,  if  not  a  great  deal  the  worse. 
We  cannot  marvel  at  this.  When  the  plant  is 
young  and  tender  a  gentle  force  will  incline  it  to 
whichsoever  way  we  may  wish,  but  ere  it  has  even 
attained  its  full  growth  it  very  unwillingly  bends  to 
our  hand,  and  thus  is  it  with  human  kind.  The 
excessive  tenderness  of  a  fond  mother  is  no  match 
for  the  wayward  temper  of  a  darling  boy,  and  how 
often  is  his  ruin  to  be  traced  to  this  source !  In 
the  weakness  of  her  affection  she  is  unable  to  say 
"  no  "  ;  and  she  only  finds  out  when  it  is  too  late, 
that  the  object  of  her  affection  will  neither  bridle 
his  passions  nor  restrain  his  actions  at  her  bidding  ; 
nor  indeed,  as  was  unfortunately  the  case  with  the 
memorable  subject  of  this  memoir,  at  that  of  any 
other  human  being.  But  was  not  such  always  the 
case  ?  The  Lacedaemonian  lawgiver,  at  all  events, 
was  of  this  opinion,  when  he  ordered  the  two 
hounds  to  be  brought  into  court  to  illustrate  his 
argument  in  favour  of  moral  restraint.  One  took 
after  a  hare  and  the  other  ran  to  his  dinner,  as  each 
had,  in  his  youth,  been  instructed  to  do.  "There," 
said  the  Spartan,  "  is  the  effect  of  early  discipline  ; 
those  animals  were  whelps  of  the  same  litter,  but  the 
difference  of  education  has  made  one  a  good  hound, 
that  seldom  misses  his  game,  whereas  his  brother 


io  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

is  a  cur,  fit  for  nothing   but  to  lick  the  dishes." 
And  thus  it  is  in  the  stable : — 

"  Fingit  equum  tenera  docilem  cervice  magister 
Ire  viam,  quam  monstrat  eques  " — 

writes  Horace,  when  he  shows  that  the  temper  of 
the  horse  depends  upon  his  treatment  when  a  colt. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  for  me  to  observe  that, 
before  he  was  ten  years  old,  Master  Mytton  was 
as  finished  a  Pickle  as  the  fondest  mother  and  his 
own  will  could  possibly  have  made  him.  Indeed 
his  neighbour,  Sir  Richard  Puleston,  with  a  felicity 
of  expression  peculiarly  his  own,  christened  him 
Mango,  the  king  of  the  Pickles,  and  he  proved 
his  title  to  the  honour  even  to  the  end  of  his  life. 
But  Master  Mytton  was  withal  a  wonderful 
favourite  in  his  neighbourhood,  because  all  his 
actions  were  tempered  with  kindness,  as  indeed  they 
were  to  his  very  last  hour.  But  how  am  I  to 
describe  the  whole  career  of  his  infant  state,  his 
scholastic  progress,  and  his  academical  honours  ? 
Why  the  task  is  performed  in  a  few  words. 
He  was  expelled  Westminster 1  and  Harrow ; 
knocked  down  his  private  tutor  in  Berkshire,  in 
whose  hands  he  was  afterwards  placed ;  was 
entered  on  the  books  of  both  universities,  but  did 
1  Here  he  spent  ^800  a  year,  exactly  double  his  allowance. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  n 

not  matriculate  at  either,  and  the  only  outward  and 
visible  sign  of  his  ever  intending  to  do  so,  was  his 
ordering  three  pipes  of  Port  wine  to  be  sent 
addressed  to  him  at  Cambridge.  At  the  age  of 
eighteen,  however,  he  went  a  tour  on  the  Continent 
by  way  of  something  like  "  the  Finish  "  ;  and  then 
returned  to  Halston,  and  his  harriers  which  he  had 
kept  when  he  was  a  child. 

But  we  will  now  look  on  him  when  a  man  ! 
As  the  proud  recollections  of  the  Roman  fathers 
often  disturbed  the  dreams  of  their  sons,  it  is 
possible  that  our  hero,  although  I  never  heard  him 
speak  of  him,  might  have  cherished  the  recollection 
of  the  renowned  General  Mytton,  and  wished  to 
signalize  himself  as  he  had  done,  in  arms.  Be  this 
as  it  may,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  he  entered,  as  a 
Cornet,  the  7th  Hussars,  and  joined  them  in 
France,  with  the  army  of  occupation.  But  as  by 
this  time  all  fighting  was  at  end,  Cornet  Mytton 
made  himself  signal  in  sundry  other  ways.  A 
heavy  purse  and  an  open  hand  are  by  no  means 
necessary  qualifications  in  a  soldier ;  and  it  was 
very  unlikely  that  he,  above  all  men,  having  only  a 
few  months  to  wait  for  being  in  full  possession  of 
his  property,  should  keep  without  the  magic 
circle,  and  not  enter  into  all  kinds  of  youthful 
mischief.     Some   of   his   feats   were   of  a    nearly 


12  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

harmless  nature,  such  as  his  racing  exploits — him- 
self the  jockey  ;  his  borrowing  ,£3,000  of  a  banker 
at  St.  Omer,  one  day,  and  losing  half  of  it  the 
next  at  a  rascally  E.  O.  table,  which  he  de- 
molished to  atoms  as  some  satisfaction  for  his  loss ; 
but  his  doings  at  Calais  at  this  period  were  of  a 
more  serious  nature.  He  lost  the  immense  sum  of 
sixteen  thousand  Napoleons  to  a  certain  Captain,  at 
billiards,  which  sum  he  could  not  then  pay.  But 
the  score  was  wiped  off  in  a  more  agreeable  manner. 
It  being  suspected  to  have  been  a  cross,  which  no 
doubt  it  was,  the  Colonel  of  his  regiment,  the 
Marquess  of  Anglesea,  then  Earl  of  Uxbridge, 
forbad  his  paying  the  money,  and  with  any  other 
man  but  John  Mytton,  such  authority  would  have 
been  conclusive.  He,  however,  afterwards  entered 
into  correspondence  with  his  opponent,  which  led 
to  the  publication  of  pamphlets  and  placards ;  but  a 
late  transaction,  in  which  that  person's  conduct  has 
been  implicated,  proved  how  right  Lord  Anglesea 
was  in  his  decision,  and  how  wrong  the  victim 
was  in  ever  holding  a  communication  with  his 
destroyer. 

Quitting  the  army,  and  in  his  twenty-third  year, 
he  entered,  for  the  first  time,  into  the  marriage 
state,  and  his  wedding  was  thus  announced  in  the 
Shrewsbury  papers : — 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  13 

"On  the  2 1  st  May,  181 8,  at  St  George's 
Hanover-square,  by  the  Rev.  William  Douglas, 
Prebend  of  Westminster,  John  Mytton,  of 
Halston,  in  this  county,  Esq.,  to  Harriet  Emma 
Jones,  eldest  daughter  of  the  late  Sir  Tyrwhitt 
Jones,  Bart.,  of  Stanley-hall,  in  this  county,  and 
sister  to  the  present  Sir  Tyrwhitt  Jones,  Bart. 
The  bridegroom  was  attended  by  the  Earl  of 
Uxbridge,  the  Earl  of  Denbigh,  Sir  Watkin 
Williams  Wynn,  Bart.,  Colonel  Sir  Edward 
Kerrison,  &c.  &c.  After  the  ceremony  they 
returned  to  the  house  of  Lady  Jones,  in  New 
Norfolk-street,  where  a  most  elegant  breakfast  was 
provided  ;  and  from  thence  the  happy  couple  imme- 
diately left  London  for  the  seat  of  the  Duke  of 
Marlborough,  at  Blenheim.  Among  the  company 
present  were  the  Duchess  of  Marlborough  and  Lady 
Caroline  Churchill,  Sir  John  and  Lady  Dashwood 
and  Miss  Dashwood,  Sir  Edward  and  Lady 
Kerrison,  Lord  and  Lady  Say  and  Sele  and  Miss 
Twisleton,  General  and  Mrs.  Gascoyne  and  Miss 
Gascoyne,  the  Marquess  of  Blandford  and  Lord 
Charles  Churchill,  Mr.,  Mrs.,  and  Miss  Leigh,  Sir 
Tyrwhitt  Jones,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Patton  Bold  and  the 
Misses  Bold,  and  many  other  persons  of  distinction." 

The  issue  of  this  marriage  was  only  one  daughter, 
at  present  alive,  and  residing  with  Mrs.  Corbet,  of 


14  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

Sundorne-castle,  Shropshire,  widow  of  the  ever  to 
be  revered  John  Corbet,  who  so  many  years  hunted 
Warwickshire.  Mrs.  Mytton,  whose  state  of  health 
was  always  delicate,  died  a  few  years  after  her 
marriage.  Mr.  Mytton  had  but  one  sister,  who 
was  married  to  John  Hesketh  Lethbridge,  Esq., 
eldest  son  of  Sir  Thomas  Lethbridge,  Bart.,  in 
March,  1 817,  and  she  ceased  to  exist  in  the  same 
month  of  the  year  1826,  leaving  two  sons  and  four 
daughters.  She  was  not  only  truly  elegant  in  her 
person,  but  very  highly  accomplished,  and  of  a 
singularly  mild  and  amiable  disposition ;  and  those 
who  wish  for  a  confirmation  of  the  eulogium  I 
have  passed  upon  her,  may  satisfy  themselves  by 
referring  to  the  "  Gentleman's  Magazine,"  for 
October,  1826,  page  357;  where  her  character  is 
very  faithfully  sketched  in  some  lines  from  the  pen 
of  a  female  friend,  a  niece  to  the  present  Bishop  of 
Norwich.  Mytton  had  a  great  respect  for  this 
amiable  sister,  but  would  never  take  her  advice,  nor 
indeed  that  of  any  living  soul. 

Both  in  person,  and  in  mind,  the  gifts  of 
nature  were  amply  bestowed  upon  the  late 
Mr.  Mytton.  In  fact,  he  possessed  what 
are  called  the  animal  faculties  to  a  degree 
seldom  witnessed,  and  had  he  been  commonly 
temperate    in    his    mode    of    living,    he    might, 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  15 

barring  accidental  death,  have  attained  a  very 
advanced  age.  The  biceps  muscle  of  his  arm  was 
larger  than  that  of  Jackson's,  the  celebrated 
pugilist's,  and  those  of  every  other  part  of  his  body 
were  equally  exuberant  and  powerful.  Unfortun- 
ately, however,  for  himself,  and  often  so  for  his 
companions,  he  was,  like  Cleanthes  of  old,  proud  of 
displaying  his  strength  ;  but  fortunately  for  mankind 
he  would  not,  like  Cleanthes,  be  instructed  in  the 
art  of  boxing,  or  he  would  have  been  still  more  for- 
midable with  his  fists.  As  it  was,  in  a  "  turn  up," 
he  was,  what  is  called,  a  very  awkward  customer, 
and  when  he  could  get  at  him  he  knocked  down  his 
man  as  if  he  had  been  a  nine-pin.  But  he  was 
nearly  ignorant  of  the  science  of  self-defence,  and, 
as  I  have  already  observed,  never  attempted  to 
attain  it.  His  bull-dog  courage,  however,  added 
to  his  tremendous  blow,  enabled  him  to  beat  any 
ordinary  man ;  and  so  well  was  his  prowess  known, 
that  few  ventured  to  encounter  him.  He  had  not  a 
handsome  face,  but  by  no  means  an  unpleasing 
countenance ;  and,  without  having  practised  the 
graces,  the  air  and  character  of  the  gentleman  were 
strongly  impressed  on  his  carriage.  His  shoulders 
were  finely  formed,  with  a  very  expanded  chest 
— height,  about  five  feet  nine  inches ;  weight, 
varying  in  the  last  twelve  years  of  his  life  from 
eleven  to  thirteen  stone. 


1 6  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

I  should  think  the  best  battle  he  ever  fought  was 
in  1826,  with  a  countryman — a  Welch  miner — 
who  offended  him  by  holloaing  the  harriers  of 
Mr.  Nicholls,  of  Crumpwell,  near  Oswestry,  to  a 
fresh  hare,  when  they  were  on  the  scent  of  the 
hunted  one,  and  on  the  point  of  killing  her  after  an 
extraordinary  run.  The  miner  told  him  he  would 
find  him  "  a  tough  un,"  which  he  did ;  but  after 
twenty  rounds  he  cried,  "  hold  hard,  enough" 
And  now  appears  Mytton  in  his  true  character. 
The  hunted  hare  being  eventually  killed,  he  gave 
the  miner  ten  shillings,  told  him  to  go  to  Halston 
and  get  "  another  bellyfull,"  and  to  order  the  hare 
to  be  cooked  for  dinner  that  day. 

Never  was  constitution  so  murdered  as  Mr. 
Mytton's  was ;  for,  what  but  one  of  adamant  could 
have  withstood  the  shocks,  independent  of  wine,  to 
which  it  was  almost  daily  exposed  ?  His  dress 
alone  would  have  caused  the  death  of  nine  hundred 
of  a  thousand  men  who  passed  one  part  of  the  day 
and  night  in  a  state  of  luxury  and  warmth.  We 
will  take  him  from  the  sole  of  his  shoe  to  the 
crown  of  his  hat.  He  never  wore  any  but  the 
thinnest  and  finest  silk  stockings,  with  very  thin 
boots  or  shoes,  so  that  in  winter  he  rarely  had  dry 
feet.  To  flannel  he  was  a  stranger,  since 
he    left    off     his    petticoats.     Even    his  hunting 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  17 

breeches  were  without  lining ;  he  wore  one  small 
waistcoat,  always  open  in  the  front  from  about  the 
second  of  the  lower  buttons  ;  and  about  home  he 
was  as  often  without  his  hat  as  with  one.  His 
winter  shooting  gear  was  a  light  jacket,  white  linen 
trousers,  without  lining  or  drawers,  of  which  he 
knew  not  the  use ;  and  in  frost  and  snow  he  waded 
through  all  water  that  came  in  his  way.  Nor  is 
this  all.  He  would  sometimes  strip  to  his  shirt  to 
follow  wild-fowl  in  hard  weather,  and  once  actually 
laid  himself  down  on  the  snow  in  his  shirt  only  to 
wait  their  arrival  at  dusk.  But  Dame  Nature  took 
offence  at  this,  and  chastised  him  rather  severely  for 
his  daring.  On  one  occasion,  however,  he  out- 
heroded  Herod,  for  he  followed  some  ducks  "  in 
puris  naturalibus  " — anglice,  stark-naked — on  the 
ice,1  and  escaped  with  perfect  impunity.  He  was 
the  only  man  I  ever  knew  who  I  think,  at  one  time 
of  his  life,  might  have  stood  some  chance  of 
performing  the  grand  Osbaldeston  match  over 
Newmarket,  from  the  ease  with  which  he  per- 
formed immense  distances  on  the  road  on  his 
hacks.  When  his  hounds  hunted  the  Albrighton 
country  (Staffordshire)  he  used  to  ride,  several 
times    in   the   week,    to    covers   nearly  fifty  miles 

1  This  occurred  at  Woodhouse,  the  seat  of  his  uncle, 
who  related  the  story  to  me  in  London,  the  circumstance 
having  occurred  since  I  last  visited  Shropshire. 
2 


1 8  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

distant  from  Halston,  and  return  thither  to  his  dinner. 
Indeed  he  has  been  known  to  do  it  for  some  days 
successively.  Neither  could  any  man  I  ever  met 
in  the  field  walk  through  the  day  with  him,  at  his 
pace.  I  saw  him,  on  his  own  moors  in  Merioneth- 
shire, completely  knock  up  two  keepers  (who  ac- 
companied him  alternately),  being  the  whole  day 
bare-headed  under  a  hot  sun.  (One  of  these  keepers 
— whom  I  procured  for  him  in  Cheshire — was  rather 
a  crack  walker,  and  a  noted  man  with  his  fists.) 
He  had  the  stomach  of  an  ostrich  before  it  was 
debilitated  by  wine,  and  even  against  that  it  stood 
nearly  proof  to  the  last,  but  it  appears  he  once  met 
with  his  match.  Himself  and  a  friend  left  London 
together  with  eighteen  pounds  of  filbert-nuts  in  his 
carriage,  and  they  devoured  them  all  before  they  ar- 
rived at  Halston.  To  use  his  own  words,  they  sat  up 
to  their  knees  in  nut-shells.  But  it  was  often  alarming 
to  witness  the  quantity  of  dry  nuts  he  would  eat,  with 
the  quantity  of  port  wine  which  he  would  drink  ;  and 
on  my  once  telling  him  at  his  own  table  that  the 
ill-assorted  mixture  caused  the  death  of  a  school- 
fellow   of   mine,1   he    carried    a    dish    of    filberts 

1  When  mentioning  this  fact,  I  was  quite  unconscious 
that  General  Williams,  who  was  present,  was  brother  to 
the  youth  I  alluded  to.  "  You  are  speaking  of  a  brother 
of  mine,"  said  the  General.  "  Volat  irrevocabile 
verbum  ;  "  I  had  nothing  left  but  to  apologize. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  19 

into  the  drawing-room  with  him,  for  the  purpose 
of  "  clearing  decks,"  as  he  said.  Among  other 
peculiarities,  he  never  carried  a  pocket-handker- 
chief, for  he  never  had  occasion  for  the  use  of 
one ;  he  very  rarely  wore  gloves,  for  his  hands 
were  never  cold  ;  and  although  he  never  wore  a 
watch,  he  always  knew  the  hour. 

On  the  subject  of  nuts,  the  following  anecdote 
has  been  handed  to  me  by  a  gentleman  who 
vouched  for  the  truth  of  it.  Mytton,  in  his 
prosperity,  was  a  great  favourite  of  the  shopkeepers 
of  Shrewsbury  and  Oswestry,  and  among  others, 
of  a  sporting  hair-dresser  of  the  former  place,  to 
whom  he  often  gave  a  day's  shooting.  This 
person  was  his  chief  purveyor  of  filberts,  and 
having  an  unlimited  order  for  the  purchase  of 
them,  declared  that,  in  one  season,  he  sent  to 
Halston  as  many  as  two  cart-loads  of  them  !  As 
may  be  supposed,  in  return  for  pheasants  and  hares, 
the  house  or  shop  of  Monsieur  le  Perruquier  was 
now  and  then  the  scene  of  a  "  lark."  Entering 
it  one  evening,  he  asked  what  he  could  have  to 
drink  ?  but  before  an  answer  could  be  given 
him,  he  snatched  up  a  pint  bottle  of  lavender 
water,  and,  knocking  off  the  head  of  it,  drank 
it  off  at  a  draught — saying,  "  It  was  a  good  pre- 
servative against  the  bad  effects  of  night  air."     I 


2o  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

shall    presently   show   that   this   was   not   his   last 
performance  upon  this  stage. 

That  John  Mytton  saw  his  thirty-eighth  year, 
must  be  attributed  either  to  the  good  genius  that 
accompanied  him,  or  to  the  signal  interposition  of 
Providence,  for  scarcely  a  day  passed  over  his 
head  in  which  he  did  not  put  his  life  to  the  hazard. 
Some  of  his  escapes,  indeed,  border  closely  on 
the  miraculous,  but  it  would  fill  a  volume  were  I 
to  enumerate  them.  How  often  has  he  been 
run  away  with  by  horses,  in  gigs  !  How  often 
struggling  in  deep  water,  without  being  able  to 
swim !  How  was  it  that  he  did  not  get  torn  to 
pieces  in  the  countless  street-broils  in  which  he  was 
engaged  ; *  and  lastly,  how  did  he  avoid  being  shot 
in  a  duel  ?  The  latter  question  is  soon  answered — 
he  never  fought  one.  In  fact,  he  was  always  con- 
sidered somewhat  of  a  man  of  license  in  society,  and 
although  no  one  doubted  his  standing  fire,  if  called 
upon,  it  is  my  firm  persuasion  nothing  would  have 
induced  him  to  have  aimed  at  a  man  to  destroy  him. 

1  In  the  literal  sense  of  the  term,  he  was  once  nearly 
divided  into  two  John  Myttons,  at  a  race  meeting  in 
Lancashire,  for  which  offence — as  well  as  an  attempt  to 
rob  him — one  man  was  transported.  One  party  of  thieves 
wanted  to  pull  him  into  a  house  and  the  other  out  of  it,  so 
between  both  he  was  nearer  being  quartered  than  divided, 
and  nothing  but  the  great  strength  of  his  frame  saved  him. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  21 

In  the  saddle,  too,  he  ran  prodigious  risks  for  his 
life,  not  only  by  riding  at  apparently  impracticable 
fences,  with  hounds,  but  in  falling  from  his  horses 
when  intoxicated.  For  the  former  of  these  acts 
he  was  for  many  years  so  notorious,  that  it  was  a 
common  answer  to  the  question — whether  a  certain 
sort  of  fence  could  be  leaped,  or  whether  any  man 
would  attempt  it  ? — that  it  would  do  for  Mytton. 
He  once  actually  galloped  at  full  speed  over  a 
rabbit-warren,  to  try  whether  or  not  his  horse 
would  fall,  which  of  course  he  did,  and  rolled 
over  him.  This  perfect  contempt  of  danger  was 
truly  characteristic  of  himself;  but,  not  content 
with  the  possession  of  it,  he  endeavoured  to  im- 
part it  to  his  friends.  As  he  was  one  day  driving 
one  of  them  in  a  gig,  who  expressed  a  strong 
regard  for  his  neck,  with  a  hint  that  he  considered 
it  in  some  danger,  Mytton  addressed  him  thus : 
— "Was  you  ever  much  hurt  then,  by  being 
upset  in  a  gig  ?  "  "  No,  thank  God,"  said  his 
companion,  "for  I  never  was  upset  in  one." 
"What!"  replied  Mytton — "never  upset  in  a 
gig  ?  What  a  d — d  slow  fellow  you  must  have 
been  all  your  life ;  "  and,  running  his  near  wheel 
up  the  bank,  over  they  both  went,  fortunately 
without  either  being  much  injured  ! 

Shortly  after  Mr.  Mytton  attained  his  majority,  he 


22  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

gave  a  horse-dealer,  named  Clarke,  of  Meole,  in 
Shropshire,  an  order  to  purchase  for  him  some 
carriage  horses.  Putting  one  of  them  into  a  gig, 
tandem,  to  see,  as  he  expressed  himself,  "  whether 
he  would  make  a  good  leader,"  he  asked  the 
dealer,  who  sat  beside  him,  if  he  thought  he  <was 
a  good  timber-jumper  ?  On  the  dealer  expressing 
a  doubt,  Mytton  exclaimed,  "  Then  we'll  try 
him  "  ;  and  a  closed  turnpike-gate  (at  Hanwood) 
being  before  him,  he  gave  the  horse  his  head,  and 
a  flanker  with  his  whip  at  the  same  moment,  when 
he  cleared  the  gate  in  beautiful  style,  leaving 
Mytton  and  the  dealer,  and  the  other  horse,  all  on 
the  nether  side  of  the  gate  ;  and  fortunately  all  alive, 
although  the  gig  was  much  injured.  He  once 
had  a  horse  that  would  rear  up  in  his  gig,  at  the 
word  of  command,  until  the  hinder  part  of  it 
absolutely  touched  the  ground  ;  and,  although  he 
was  much  given  to  display  this  dangerous  accom- 
plishment, no  accident  was  the  result. 

I  was  myself  once  passing  through  the  town 
of  Oswestry,  only  two  hours  too  late  to  have 
witnessed  a  most  singular  performance  of  a 
team  of  coach  horses  of  his,  which  he  had 
been  exercising  in  a  break.  Finding  they 
had  gotten  the  better  of  him,  he  contrived  to 
quit     the     carriage     without      injury,     and     the 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  23 

horses  being  at  liberty,  ran  at  full  speed  into  the 
town  of  Oswestry.  Unfortunately  a  gateway  pre- 
sented itself,  into  which  they  dashed,  and  now  for 
the  finish.  The  said  gateway  led  into  a  parallel 
street,  but,  narrowing  as  it  lengthened,  there  was, 
towards  the  further  end  of  it,  room  for  the  horses 
but  not  for  the  carriage  to  pass.  The  consequence 
was,  the  four  horses,  breaking  all  their  harness  by 
the  shock,  tumbled  head  over  heels  into  the  street, 
and  strange  to  say,  not  one  of  them  was  killed. 
So  much  for  his  exploits  in  harness. 

Perhaps  the  most  awful  accident  that  ever 
happened  to  this  most  extraordinary  man,  was 
on  his  return,  after  dark,  from  a  race-course, 
in  his  travelling  carriage  and  four.  The  post- 
boys mistook  an  old  road,  which  had  been 
stopped  up,  for  the  right  one ;  and  entered  it, 
down  hill  too,  at  the  rate  of  fourteen  miles  in 
the  hour,  when  they  came  suddenly  in  contact 
with  some  fallen  trees,  which  were  placed  across 
it  as  a  barrier.  The  force  of  the  shock  may 
be  imagined  ;  the  carriage  was  broken  to 
pieces ;  the  servant  was  pitched  from  his  seat 
to  a  very  considerable  distance,  sustaining  a  frac- 
ture of  the  skull  from  the  fall ;  and  Mytton  was 
a  good  deal  hurt — any  other  man,  perhaps,  would 
have   been   killed,  as   he  was   fast   asleep  at   the 


24  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

time.  The  fate  of  the  horses  and  the  boys  I  do 
not  at  this  moment  recollect ;  but  the  servant — 
who  by  good  conduct  was  promoted  by  degrees  to 
the  post  of  valet  de  chambre  to  Mr.  M.  from  being 
a  boy  in  my  stable — has,  I  fear,  never  recovered 
from  the  effects  of  this  dire  mishap. 

But  Mr.  Mytton  appeared,  at  least  wished  to 
be  supposed  to  be,  indifferent  to  pain.  A  very 
few  days  after  he  had  had  so  bad  a  fall  with  his 
own  hounds  as  to  occasion  the  dislocation  of 
three  ribs,  and  was  otherwise  much  bruised,  a 
friend  in  Wales,  unconscious  of  his  accident,  sent 
him  a  fox  in  a  bag,  with  a  hint  that,  if  turned 
out  on  the  morrow,  he  would  be  sure  to  afford 
sport,  as  he  was  only  just  caught.  "To-morrow, 
then,"  said  Mytton,  "  will  we  run  him "  ;  and 
although  he  was  lifted  upon  his  horse,  having  his 
body  swathed  with  rollers,  and  also  writhing  with 
pain,  he  took  the  lead  of  all  the  field,  upon  a  horse 
he  called  "  The  Devil,"  and  was  never  headed 
by  any  man,  till  he  killed  his  fox,  at  the  end  of 
a  capital  hour's  run.  He  was  very  near  fainting 
from  the  severity  of  this  trial ;  but  I  remember 
his  telling  me,  he  ivould  not  have  been  seen  to  faint ', 
for  ten  thousand  pounds. 

Upon  another  somewhatsimilar  occasion,  he  showed 


1 

Si 


.1 


^  ^ 

^ 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  25 

his  disregard  of  pain.  He  was  on  his  return  from 
the  field,  with  two  of  his  ribs  displaced,  and 
evidently  suffering  much  from  a  fall.  To  enable 
him  to  cut  off  an  angle,  he  got  into  a  fold-yard, 
but  could  not  get  out  of  it  unless  by  riding  over 
some  high  rails,  which  he  did,  in  that  state. 

In  the  hilarity  of  high  animal  spirits  he  per- 
formed some  feats  that  were  ludicrous,  and  others 
that  were  painful  to  witness.  Amongst  the 
former  was  his  appearance  with  Lord  Derby's 
stag-hounds,  when  he  was  taken  for  a  London 
tailor.  Happening  to  be  in  town  in  the  hunt- 
ing season,  he  had  a  desire  to  see  those  cele- 
brated hounds,  and  Tilbury  sent  out  a  horse  for 
the  purpose.  On  his  arrival  at  the  place  of  meet- 
ing in  a  cab,  which  he  had  driven  at  an  awful  rate, 
he  attracted  the  notice  of  the  throng,  to  all  of 
whom,  save  one,  he  was  a  stranger.  "  What  a  buck 
he  is  !  "  said  one.  "Who  the  d — 1  is  he?"  said 
another.  "He  is  a  tailor  from  London"  said 
several,  all  of  which  remarks  were  carefully  re- 
echoed to  him  by  his  friend.  Mytton  said  nothing, 
but  the  tables  were  soon  turned  when  Lord  Derby's 
carriage  drove  up.  "What,  Mytton!"  ex- 
claimed Lord  Stanley,1  "who  would  have 
thought  of  seeing  you  here "  —  putting  out  his 
1  Now  Earl  of  Derby. 


26  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

hand  to  welcome  him.  "  Why,  to  tell  you  the 
truth,  Stanley,"  said  Mytton,  "  I  have  ridden  over 
many  a  good  fellow  in  my  own  country,  but  I 
never  rode  over  a  Cockney,  and  I  am  come  here 
to-day  for  that  sole  purpose." 

His  treatment  of  a  London  Jew  money-lender 
was  not  amiss.  Being  wearied  by  delay,  he 
hired  two  coal-heavers  to  knock  at  his  door  every 
second  hour  throughout  the  night,  until  the  money 
was  forthcoming.  But  this  anecdote  furnishes  a 
painful  recollection  on  the  subject  of  money-lend- 
ing. A  few  years  back  he  borrowed  ten  thousand 
pounds  on  an  annuity  at  high  interest,  and  lent 
nine  of  it  to  a  friend  who  has  never  been  seen 
in  Europe  since  !  This,  although  a  type  of  the 
man,  is  no  matter  for  joking ;  but  the  following 
may  be  looked  upon  as  frolics.  He  had  a  parson 
and  a  doctor  dining  with  him  one  evening  at 
Halston,  and  at  a  certain  hour  of  the  night  they 
mounted  their  horses  to  return  to  their  homes. 
Having  a  carter's  frock,  and  a  brace  of  pistols 
loaded  with  blank  cartridges,  at  hand,  Mytton 
mounted  a  hack,  and  by  a  circuitous  route 
headed  and  met  them  on  the  road,  when  letting  fly 
both  barrels  at  them,  and  calling  to  them  to 
"  stand  and  deliver,"  he  declared  they  never  rode 
half  so  fast   in  their  lives  as  they  did  from  that 


I 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  27 

place  to  Oswestry,  with  himself  at  their  heels. 
On  another  occasion  he  was  told  that  the  late 
George  Underhill,  the  celebrated  Shropshire 
horse-dealer,  was  in  his  house,  on  his  road  from 
Chester  fair.  Sending  for  him  into  his  dining- 
room,  he  made  him  excessively  drunk  and  put  him 
to  bed  with  two  bull-dogs  and  a  bear !  He  once 
rode  this  bear  into  his  drawing-room,  in  full  hunt- 
ing costume.  The  animal  carried  him  very  quietly 
for  a  certain  time ;  but  on  being  pricked  by  the 
spur  he  bit  his  rider  through  the  calf  of  his  leg, 
inflicting  a  severe  wound.  The  mention  of  this 
bear  reminds  me  of  another  amusing  anecdote. 
Having  sent  one  of  his  stable  boys  with  a  hack  to 
meet  a  friend  who  was  coming  by  a  coach,  the 
latter  exclaimed,  on  riding  into  the  Halston  stable- 
yard,  "  Ah  !  bruin  !  " — alluding  to  the  bear,  "  Oh 
yes,  sir,"  observed  the  lad,  "  we  always  brews 
twice  a  week  at  Halston."  What  I  am  now  going 
to  relate  I  know  not  how  to  define,  for  in  most 
people's  opinion  it  rather  exceeds  a  joke.  As  we 
were  eating  some  supper  one  night  in  the  coffee- 
room  of  the  hotel  at  Chester,  during  the  race  week, 
a  gentleman,  who  was  a  stranger  to  us  all,  was 
standing  with  his  back  to  the  fire,  talking  very 
loudly,  having  drunk  too  much  wine.  "  I'll  stop 
him,"  said  Mytton ;  and  getting  behind  him  unper- 
ceived,  put  a  red-hot  coal  into  his  pocket. 


28  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

But  I  have  a  better,  inasmuch  as  it  was  a  more 
harmless,  joke,  to  relate  with  respect  to  George 
Underhill,  the  horse-dealer.  He  rode  over  one 
day  to  Halston,  to  dun  Mr.  Mytton  for  his 
demand  upon  him,  which,  1  believe,  was  rather  a 
large  one.  After  having  been  made  comfortable 
in  the  steward's  room,  Mytton  addressed  him  thus  : 
"Well,  George,  here  (handing  him  a  letter)  is 
an  order  for  all  your  money.  Call  on  this 
gentleman,  as  you  pass  through  Shrewsbury,  and 
he  will  give  it  to  you  in  fully  Now  this  gentle- 
man— also  a  hanker — was  one  of  the  governors  of 
the  Lunatic  Asylum,  and  the  order  for  payment 
ran  thus : 

Halston. 
Sir, 

Admit   the    bearer,   George    Underhill, 
into  the  Lunatic  Asylum. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

John  Mytton. 

The  mention  of  the  trick  he  paid  the  Jew 
money-lender  bears  a  resemblance  to  one  he  paid 
a  toll  -  keeper  near  his  own  house,  who  had 
demanded  and  received  double  toll  from  him 
on  the  score  of  its  being  past  twelve  o'clock 
at  night,  whereas  it  was  only  just  eleven,  and 
it     had     been     once     before     paid     during     the 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  29 

day.  Although  it  was  a  bitter  cold  night,  Mytton 
waited  till  the  toll-keeper  was  warm  in  his  bed, 
and  then  repassed  the  gate,  of  course  without 
paying  toll.  Nor  did  the  frolic  end  here.  No 
sooner  was  the  fellow  once  more  in  bed,  than  the 
word  "  Gate  "  again  resounded  in  his  ears ;  and 
finding  out  whom  he  had  to  deal  with,  he  gladly 
returned  the  money,  and  enjoyed  the  rest  of  the 
night  in  repose. 

The  history  of  this  bear  may  not  be  unworthy 
of  notice.  Mytton  purchased  her  (it  was  a  female 
bear)  when  very  young,  together  with  a  monkey, 
from  a  strolling  showman  who  was  passing  through 
Ellesmere,  a  town  five  miles  distant  from  Halston, 
for  the  sum  of  thirty-five  pounds  for  the  two. 
Having  been  upwards  of  seven  years  in  his  posses- 
sion and  handled  at  an  early  age,  the  former  was 
tolerably  tracticable  for  an  animal  so  naturally  savage ; 
but  she  was  not  to  be  trifled  with  by  strangers.  It 
was  indeed  in  consequence  of  her  injuring  one 
of  the  servants  of  the  establishment  that  Mytton 
ordered  her  to  be  put  to  death,  which,  as  fire-arms 
were  not  resorted  to,  was  said  to  have  been  a  very 
difficult  undertaking.  In  self-defence  she  severely 
wounded  one  of  her  assailants. 

The  death  of  the  monkey  was  quite  in  character 


30  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

with  his  life — bordering  strongly  on  the  ludicrous. 
Like  his  master,  Jacko  was  fond  of  his  bottle,  and 
mistaking  a  jar  of  Day  and  Martin's  blacking  for 
something  of  a  more  vinuous  quality,  he  drank  so 
freely  of  it  as  to  produce  an  illness  which  deprived 
him  of  his  eye-sight,  and  eventually  caused  his 
death.  Many  of  his  exploits  have  been  related  to 
me,  such  as  his  performance,  after  hounds,  on  the 
horse  called  The  Devil,  but  as  I  have  no  personal 
knowledge  of  them,  I  am  unwilling  to  give  them 
publicity.  They  bear  too  close  a  resemblance  to 
some  old  Joe  Miller  stories  of  the  same  amusing 
animal. 

It  is  said  of  Napoleon,  that  he  wished  to  banish 
the  word  "impossible  "  from  the  French  Dictionary. 
Mytton  must  have  had  some  such  desire ;  for  he 
once  told  me,  at  Halston,  that  he  had  a  filly  in 
his  racing  stable  which  should  win  the  Oaks  (she 
was  named  in  those  stakes),  and  afterwards  she 
herself  should  put  them  into  his  pocket.  On  my 
ridiculing  the  idea,  he  said — "  Why  not  ?  She 
will  now  put  both  her  hind  feet  into  my  pockets, 
and  why  not  her  mouth  ?  "  I  accompanied  him  to 
the  stable,  and  to  my  horror  witnessed  the  latter 
exhibition.  Mytton  laid  himself  down  at  full 
length  under  her  belly,  with  his  bare  head 
between   her   heels,   and   first  taking   up   one   foot 


l.5l 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  31 

and  then  the  other,  placed  them  both  in  the  pockets 
of  his  dressing  gown.  William  Dilly,  his  trainer, 
witnessed  all  this  as  well  as  myself;  but  on  his 
attempting  to  take  liberties  with  a  horse  called 
Oswestry,  in  the  next  box,  who  was  of  a  very 
different  temper,  his  worthy  servant  thus  addressed 
him.  "  You  will  do  that  once  too  often,  sir,  with 
this  horse ;  and,  good-tempered  as  she  is,  should 
your  Oaks  filly  become  alarmed,  she  will  surely 
knock  out  your  brains."  "  Good  advice,  Mr. 
Dilly,"  said  I,  as  I  turned  away  from  the  awful 
scene ;  "  but  you  may  spare  your  breath ;  John 
Mytton  will  be  John  Mytton  ;  he  heareth  not 
the  voice  of  the  charmer,  charm  he  never  so 
wisely,  and,  like  Homer's  divinities,  is  always  in 
mischief." 

But  I  must  not  do,  as  Homer  did  by  his  heroes, 
make  mine  a  savage.  And  yet  how  are  we  to 
define  some  of  the  darings  and  doings  of  this 
extraordinary  man !  For  example,  the  following 
description  of  an  evening  at  Halston  is  given  by 
me  in  the  Sporting  Magazine  just  ten  years  back, 
and,  strange  enough,  to  a  very  day  from  the  present 
writing.  After  describing  a  display  of  young 
foxes  which  were  brought  into  the  dinner-room 
for  inspection,  I  thus  proceed :  — "  We  were 
now  offered   the   company   of  the   bear,  but   to   a 


32  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

man   declined   the   honour.     By  way  of  a   finish, 
however,  we  had  one  turn-up  between  a  Spanish 
bull-dog    and    an    animal    called    Blood — a    cross 
between  a  Spanish  bull-dog  and  an  English  mastiff; 
when  our   host,  thinking   that    Blood  was  getting 
bloody,  and  might  kill  the  other  dog,  ran  at  him  and 
pinned  him  by  the  nose ;  and   although  weighing 
more  than  seventy  pounds,  he  raised  him  from  the 
ground  with  his  teeth,  holding  him  suspended  for 
at  least   a  minute,  without   the  smallest  assistance 
from  his  hands."     Neither  is  this  a  solitary  instance 
of  his    contest   with    ferocious    dogs.       Returning 
from  hunting  one  day,  he,  with  some  others,  called 
to  lunch  at  a  farm-house  called  the  Berries,  near 
Whitchurch,   where   there   was   a  very  large  and 
savage   dog   chained   in   the   yard.       "  Pray  don't 
go  near  him,  Mr.  Mytton,"  said  his  owner,  "  for 
he  will  tear  you  in  pieces  if  you  do."     This  was 
enough  for  Mytton  ;  so  pulling  a  silk  handkerchief 
out    of  the    pocket   of    a    friend,    and   lapping    it 
around  his   left   hand,    he  advanced  with    it  ex- 
tended towards  the  dog,  who  immediately  seized  it 
with    his    mouth.       Reader — I    fancy    I    see    you 
shudder  !      But  don't  be  alarmed ;   and  when  you 
hear  the  sequel    perhaps  you  will   think    that  the 
dog  might  have    been   the  greater  sufferer  of  the 
two,  provided  blood  had  been  drawn.      Catching 
him    by   the    back    of  the   neck,    however,    with 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  33 

his  right  hand,  Mytton  instantly  pinned  the  animal 
by  the  nose  with  his  teeth  ;  and  getting  the  other 
hand  at  liberty,  so  pummelled  his  opponent  that  he 
had  scarcely  any  life  left  in  him.  As  might  be 
expected,  the  dog  never  afterwards  liked  the  look 
of  his  brother  bull-dog  or  even  a  red  coat,  but 
slunk  into  his  kennel  on  the  approach  of  either  one 
or  the  other. 

The  terms  good-natured  and  good-tempered  are 
very  often  confounded  by  being  indiscriminately 
applied  to  the  same  person  or  animal,  whereas  they 
admit  of  no  inconsiderable  distinction ;  and  we 
have  a  striking  instance  here.  Mytton,  by  nature, 
was  kind  and  beneficent  to  a  degree  very  rarely 
witnessed.  I  will  not  go  so  far  as  to  say — what 
Crabbe's  son  says  of  him — that  "  no  sympathy  was 
like  his,"  yet,  with  a  pretended  insensibility  to  the 
common  sympathies  of  our  nature,  he  never  saw 
misery  that  he  did  not  wish  to  relieve  it.  The 
conflicting  elements  of  his  character,  or,  more 
properly  speaking,  some  parts  of  his  conduct,  may 
appear  to  give  the  lie  to  this ;  yet  all  who  knew 
the  man  know  that  I  have  spoken  the  truth,  and 
the  tears  of  the  multitude  that  were  shed  at  his  grave 
place  it  beyond  dispute.  In  his  temper  he  was 
sudden  and  violent,  and,  like  Achilles,  impatient  of 
restraint ;  yet  his  wrath  endured  but  the  twinkling  of 
3 


34  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

an  eye,  and  in  forgiveness  of  injuries  he  had  no 
equal  within  my  knowledge  of  mankind.  What  a 
paradox  then  is  here !  With  all  his  native  good- 
ness of  heart,  he  appeared  to  wish  to  make  the 
world  believe  he  cared  no  more  than  Dionysius 
for  the  gods  what  the  world  thought  or  said  of 
him ;  and,  although  his  good  sense  must  have 
convinced  him  that  there  is  a  profligacy  of  spirit 
in  defying  the  rules  of  decorum,  he  oftentimes 
acted  as  if  he  considered  every  law,  human  or 
divine,  of  little  worth.  But,  I  say  again — what  a 
paradox  is  here  !  The  man  who  had  no  "  regard 
to  his  good  name,"  has  left  a  good  name  behind 
him  that  will  be  remembered  and  cherished  in 
Shropshire  for  many,  many,  years  to  come — and 
for  deeds  that  would  have  done  honour  to  an 
apostle.  When  I  say  that  he  was  charitable  to  the 
poor,  and  gave  them  two  bushels  of  wheat  a  week 
the  year  round,  I  give  him  credit  for  little  more 
than  might  be  expected  from  a  man  of  his  means, 
and  of  a  nature  generous  to  prodigality  ;  but  I  have 
reason  to  believe  no  one  knew  half  the  extent  of  his 
beneficent  acts.  'Tis  said  of  charity,  that  it  admits 
of  no  error  but  excess ;  and  to  excess  did  he  often 
carry  it,  as  I  shall  presently  have  occasion  to  show. 
In  fact,  he  was  as  extravagant  in  his  virtues  as  in  his 
vices — or,  I  would  rather  say,  in  his  failings.  The 
perfection  of  man's  moral  nature  is  said  to  be  forgive- 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  35 

ness  of  injuries,  but  Mytton  went  a  point  beyond 
this.  Even  that  hard  injunction  of  the  gospel,  to 
love  an  enemy — the  characteristic  of  a  religion  not 
of  man  but  of  God,  and,  as  the  author  of  the 
Adventurer  observes,  "  could  have  been  delivered 
as  a  precept  only,"  for  society  could  not  exist 
under  its  practice — was  no  paradox  with  him,  as  I 
shall  produce  several  instances  to  prove. 

But  to  return  to  his  nature.  Pythagoras  being 
asked  in  what  man  could  resemble  the  Divinity, 
replied  — "  in  beneficence  and  truth."  Here 
again  we  have  a  paradox.  The  man  who  some- 
times assumed  the  character  of  a  fiend,  and  appeared 
to  strive  against  the  native  goodness  of  his  heart, 
answers  to  that  of  the  Deity ;  for  inasmuch  as 
his  beneficence  was  unquestionable,  so  was  his 
veracity  unimpeachable.  Setting  aside  jesting, 
in  which  none  dealt  more  largely, — in  fact,  he 
was  a  sort  of  human  Silenus,  —  no  man  could 
with  more  safety  be  spoken  after  than  Mytton 
could.  I  am  quite  certain  nothing  could  have 
induced  him  to  have  uttered  a  premeditated 
untruth,  for  any  unworthy  purpose !  and  there 
was  a  good-humoured  and  affectionate  simplicity 
about  him  that  rendered  him  a  great  favourite 
in  his  neighbourhood.  Again — he  was  no  back- 
biter.      On    the   contrary,    when    he    heard    the 


36  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

"  voice  of  slander  rankle  on  the  ear,"  he  always 
turned  the  discourse — saying  as  my  Uncle  Toby 
did,  when  his  Corporal  was  reckoning  up  all  the 
rascals  of  his  regiment,  "we  will  speak  of  this 
another  time."  In  his  dealings  with  the  world  he 
was  a  man  of  strict  honour  and  probity  ;  and  with- 
out justifying  his  extravagance,  I  may  be  allowed 
to  say  that  his  chief  concern,  after  the  last  estates 
he  could  sell  were  disposed  of,  was  not  whether 
he  himself  might  be  left  destitute,  but  whether 
there  would  be  enough  to  pay  his  creditors  in  full. 
As  a  master  he  was  kindest  of  the  kind,  and  a  liberal 
and  most  considerate  landlord.  Surely  then  this 
man  must  have  been  either  counterfeiting  a  nature 
not  his  own,1  or  he  must  have  been,  to  a  certain 
extent  and  on  certain  points,  a  madman  !  No  doubt, 
he  did  the  one ;  and  no  doubt  he  was  the  other ! 

The  worst  feature  in  poor  Mytton's  disposition,  and 
what  may  be  termed  the  reigning  error  of  his  life  was, 

1  The  following  was  related  to  me  by  the  medical 
gentleman,  at  Oswestry  (now  living),  who  attended  the 
accouchement  of  the^fr^  Mrs.  Mytton.  "  Mr.  Mytton," 
said  he,  "was  in  the  billiard  room,  when  I  went  to  in- 
form him  of  the  birth.  What  is  it?  he  inquired.  On 
my  telling  him  it  was  a  girl,  he  swore  he  would  have  it 
smothered — but,  throwing  himself  on  a  sofa,  gave  vent  to 
his  feelings  inja  flood  of  tears,  and  his  anxiety  for  the  well- 
doing of  his  lady  would  have  done  honour  to  any  man." 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  37 

not  only  that  he  would  not  bow  to  reproof,  much 
less  kiss  the  rod,  but  he  would  suffer  no  man  either 
to  counsel  or  advise  him.  There  was,  however, 
none  of  "  obsequium  amicos,  Veritas  odium,  parit" 
that  Terence  speaks  of,  about  him,  for  he  always 
received  it  in  good  part,  being  neither  flattered  nor 
offended  ;  but  he  would  not  take  advice  even  when 
given  to  him  by  his  sincerest  friends,  and  with  the 
purest  and  most  disinterested  motives.  He  always 
considered  it  an  impeachment  of  his  understanding, 
generally  exclaiming  to  those  who  offered  it — 
"  What  the  d — 1  is  the  use  of  my  having  a  head 
on  my  own  shoulders,  if  I  am  obliged  to  make  use 
of  yours  ? "  But,  unfortunately,  at  times  his  ears 
were  deaf  to  the  voice  of  reason,  as  the  following 
anecdote  will  show : — Previously  to  the  disposal 
of  the  first  property  that  he  sold,  I  happened  to 
be  at  Halston,  and  was  about  to  accompany  him 
to  Lichfield  races,  where  each  had  horses  to  run. 
Just  before  we  set  out,  his  agent,  the  late  Mr. 
Longueville,  of  Oswestry,  arrived  at  the  house 
and  wished  to  speak  to  me.  As  nearly  as  I  can 
recollect,  the  following  were  his  exact  words : — 
"  I  have  reason  to  believe  you  can  say  as  much 
to  Mr.  Mytton  as  any  man  can ;  will  you  have  the 
goodness  to  tell  him  you  heard  me  say,  that  if  he 
will  be  content  to  live  on  ^6,000  per  annum,  for 
the  next  six  years,  he  need  not  sell  the  fine  old 


38  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

Shrewsbury  estate,  that  has  been  so  many  years 
in  his  family,  and  at  the  end  of  that  period  he  shall 
not  owe  a  guinea  to  any  man."  I  fancy  I  see  the 
form  and  features  of  my  old  friend,  with  the 
manner  in  which  he  received  and  replied  to  the 
flattering  proposition,  and  many  others  who  knew 
him  as  well  as  I  did,  will  also  have  the  picture 
in  their  mind's  eye.  Lolling  back  in  his  carriage, 
which  was  going  at  its  usual  pace,  and  picking 
a  hole  in  his  chin,  as  he  was  always  wont  to  do 
when  any  thing  particularly  occupied  his  thoughts, 
he  uttered  not  a  syllable  for  the  space  of  some 
minutes ;  when,  suddenly  changing  his  position, 
as  if  rousing  from  a  deep  reverie,  he  exclaimed, 
with  vehemence — "  You  may  tell  Longueville  to 
keep  his  advice  to  himself,  for  I  would  not  give 
a  d — n  to  live  on  six  thousand  a  year"  Knowing 
his  regard  and  esteem  for  that  worthy  gentleman, 
it  was  in  vain  to  urge  the  subject  any  further, 
for  there  was  that  in  his  manner  which  convinced 
me  he  was  not  to  be  persuaded  on  this  point  by 
any  man, — no,  not  though  one  rose  from  the  dead. 
Hence  is  his  ruin  dated. 

From  the  serious  to  the  jocular  is  but  a  step  ;  and 
the  mention  of  this  circumstance  leads  to  a  joke.  A 
near  relation  was  endeavouring  to  dissuade  him  from 
parting  with  a  certain  estate,  on  the  score  of  its  having 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  39 

been  so  long  in  the  family.  "  How  long  ? " 
inquired  Mytton.  "  Above  five  hundred  years," 
was  the  reply.  "  The  devil  it  has  !  "  resumed  this 
most  extraordinary  man  ;  "  then  it  is  high  time  it 
should  go  out  of  it." 

With  a  perfect  contempt  for  the  splendour  of 
cold-hearted  opulence,  Mr.  Mytton  lived  very  much 
like  a  gentleman  at  Halston,  where  every  thing 
was  in  keeping  with  his  fortune  and  station  in  life. 
There  was  no  unnecessary  display — two  men  servants 
out  of  livery,  and  two  in  livery,  being  the  full 
complement  at  the  dinner  table,  nor  did  he  indulge 
in  the  luxury  of  a  man  cook.  Although  himself  a 
perfect  stranger  to  the  science  of  economy,  his 
establishment  was  managed  with  considerable 
regularity ;  and  notwithstanding  the  consumption  of 
good  things  in  the  servants'  hall,  for  the  number  of 
stable  servants  was  great,  it  was  not  Halston  that 
ruined  him.  It  was  that  "  largeness  of  heart,  even  as 
the  sand  that  is  on  the  sea  shore,"  which  Solomon 
possessed,  but  unaccompanied  by  his  means  as  well 
as  by  his  wisdom,  which  ruined  Mr.  Mytton ; 
added  to  a  lofty  pride  which  disdained  the  littleness 
of  prudence,  and  a  sort  of  destroying  spirit  that  ap- 
peared to  run  amuck  at  fortune.  By  a  rough  com- 
putation, and  a  knowledge  of  the  property  he  sold,  I 
should  set  down  the  sum  total  expended,  at  very  little 


4o  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

less   than    half  a  million    sterling   within  the  last 
fifteen  years !  ! 

But  how  would  this  expenditure  be  accounted 
for  if  something  like  a  schedule  of  his  disbursements 
were  to  be  called  for  ?  The  task  would  be  an 
Herculean  one,  but  Horace  would  furnish  a 
commentary  upon  it.  Some  persons  hunt,  says 
he ;  some  race,  some  drink,  some  do  one  thing 
and  some  another ;  but  Mytton,  in  sporting 
language,  was  "  at  all  in  the  ring."  His  fox- 
hounds were  kept  by  himself  without  any 
subscription,  and  upon  a  very  extensive  scale,  with 
the  additional  expenses  attending  hunting  two 
countries.  His  racing  establishment  was  on  a  still 
larger  scale,  having  often  had  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  horses  in  training  at  the  same  time,  and 
seldom  less  than  eight.  His  average  number, 
indeed,  of  thorough-bred  stock  at  home  and  from 
home,  including  brood  mares  and  young  things, 
was  about  thirty-six  !  His  game-preserves  were 
likewise  a  most  severe  tax  upon  his  income.  Will 
it  be  credited  that  he  paid  one  bill  of  ^1,500  to  a 
London  game  dealer,  for  pheasants  and  foxes  alone  ! 
The  formation  of  three  miles  of  plantation  which 
this  game  went,  in  part,  to  stock,  must  have  cost 
him  an  immense  sum  ;  having  had,  for  several  years, 
as  many  as  fifty  able-bodied  labourers  in  his  employ. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  41 

There  is  this  line  somewhere,  though  I  cannot 
recollect  where : 

"  Dress  drains  our  cellars  dry  ;  " 

but  such  was  not  the  case  at  Halston,  and  I  believe 
the  satire  applies  to  the  ladies.  It  was  hard  to  say, 
however,  which  was  the  better  stocked  of  the  two 
— Mr.  Mytton's  wardrobe  or  the  Halston  cellars. 
I  once  counted  a  hundred  and  fifty-two  pairs  of 
breeches  and  trousers,  with  a  proportionate  accom- 
paniment of  coats,  waistcoats,  &c,  in  the  former ; 
and  I  think.  I,  on  another  occasion,  described  the 
"  hogsheads  of  ale,  standing  like  soldiers  in  close 
column,  and  wine  enough  in  wood  and  bottle 
for  a  Roman  Emperor,"  in  the  latter.  The 
clothes  he  would  put  on  his  person,  just  as  they 
came  to  his  hand,  or  as  his  wild  fancy  prompted 
him,  and  I  have  seen  him  nearly  destroy  a 
new  coat  at  once  wearing.  His  shoes  and 
boots,  all  London  make,  and  very  light,  were 
also  destroyed  in  an  equally  summary  manner,  in 
his  long  walks  over  the  country,  through  or  over 
every  thing  that  came  in  his  way.  It  is  impossible 
even  to  guess  at  his  annual  expense  in  post-horses  ; 
but  every  post-boy  in  England  lamented  the  fall  of 
"  Squire  Mytton,"  their  very  best  customer.  I 
have  reason  to  believe  that  the  money  he  has  at 
various    times    lost     (not    at    play,    for    there    I 


42  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

should  say  he  was  borne  harmless l )  would  have 
purchased  a  pretty  estate.  I  am  afraid  to  say  what 
was  supposed  to  have  been  the  amount  of  bank 
notes  that  were  one  night  blown  out  of  his  carriage 
on  his  road  from  Doncaster  races,  but  I  have 
reason  to  believe  it  was  several  thousand  pounds ! 
His  account  of  the  affair  was  this : — He  had  been 
counting  a  large  quantity  of  bank  notes  on  the 
seat  of  his  carriage — in  which  he  was  alone — with 
all  the  windows  down ;  and  falling  asleep,  did  not 
awake  until  the  night  was  far  spent — his  servant 
paying  the  charges  on  the  road.  An  equinoctial 
gale  having  sprung  up,  carried  great  part  of  the 
notes  away  on  its  wings,  verifying  the  proverb  of 
"light  come  light  go."  It  was  always  his  custom 
to  have  a  large  sum  of  money  in  his  travelling 
writing  desk,  but  it  was  more  than  usually  large 
at  this  time,  in  consequence  of  his  having 
broken  the  banks  of  two  well  known  London 
Hells  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  from  London 
for  Doncaster.  Like  Democritus,  however, 
Mytton  laughed  at  every  thing,  and  always 
spoke  of  this  as  a  very  good  joke.  I  have  seen 
him,  when  he  has  been  going  a  journey,  take  a  lot 
of  bank  notes  out  of  his  desk,  and  rolling  them  into 

1  He  was  a  very  dangerous  man  with  a  dice-box  in  his 
hand.  Wine  gave  him  courage,  which  generally  tells  at 
hazard. 


$ 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  43 

a  lump,  throw  them  at  his  servant's  head,  as  if  they 
had  been  waste  paper  ;  but  his  chaplain  used  to  say, 
he  always  knew  what  the  lump  contained,  and  how 
far  it  would  carry  him — a  fact  by  no  means  so 
clear  to  me.  I  picked  up  one  of  these  lumps  some 
years  since  in  the  plantations  at  Halston  containing 
^37,  which  had  been  there  some  days  by  its 
appearance ;  and  as  he  never  had  pockets  in  his 
breeches,  such  occurrences  must  have  been  frequent. 

Perhaps  there  was  one  cause  of  expense  incurred 
by  John  Mytton  that  is  not  to  be  traced  to  any 
other  man ;  but,  as  Charles  the  Fifth  profanely 
boasted  that  "  there  was  only  one  God  and  one 
Charles,"  surely  there  never  was  but  one  John 
Mytton.  This  said  John  Mytton  would 
never  open  letters  secured  by  wafers,  unless  he 
were  acquainted  with  the  hand-writing.  Thus 
were  tradesmen's  applications  unanswered  till 
their  patience  became  exhausted  and  law  pro- 
ceedings were  in  consequence  resorted  to.  But 
he  cared  no  more  for  writs  than  he  did 
for  any  thing  else,  as  they,  of  course,  were 
sent  to  his  solicitor,  and  all  he  knew  of 
them,  in  his  prosperity,  was,  that  he  paid 
for  them.  So  popular,  however,  was  he  with 
the  lower  orders,  that,  in  his  prosperous 
days,     I    do    not    think    a    bailiff    in    the    four 


44  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

surrounding  counties  would  have  arrested  him,  had 
he  been  instructed  so  to  do. 

It  is  impossible  to  separate  the  sort  of  vis 
comica  that  attached  itself  to  the  various  acts 
of  imprudence  of  my,  otherwise,  truly  nobly- 
minded  friend ;  and  perhaps  the  anecdote  of 
the  London  game-dealer,  and  his  ^1,500 
bill,  is  about  as  amusing  as  any.  On  his  arrival 
at  Halston,  he  presented  it  himself  to  his 
debtor ;  but  it  appeared  from  his  subsequent 
conduct  that  he  little  thought  it  would  have 
been  paid,  without  something  like  a  scrutiny 
into  its  merits.  Here,  however,  was  John 
Mytton,  "  sui  generis"  again.  "  Give  me  a 
pen  and  ink,"  said  he,  casting  his  eye  over  the 
amount :  and,  scratching  the  words,  "  Right, 
John  Mytton,"  with  his  usual  expedition,  under 
it,  exclaimed,  "  there,  take  it  to  my  agent,  and  get 
the  money."  As  may  be  supposed,  the  joy  of 
this  man  was  excessive,  but  its  out-break  was 
reserved  until  he  saw  the  agent  at  Oswestry  draw  a 
cheque  at  sight  for  the  entire  sum.  It  was  then  no 
longer  to  be  restrained,  and  thus  did  the  dealer 
in  dogs,  foxes,  pheasants,  and  monkeys,  et  hoc  genus 
omne,  give  vent  to  the  noble  feelings  of  his  nature. 
"  Oh,  my  dear  sir,"  said  he,  "  what  can  I  do  for 
you,  in  return  for  all  this  kindness  ?  "     "I  have  done 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  45 

you  no  kindness,"  said  the  agent ;  "  the  only  favour 
you  can  confer  upon  me  is,  never  to  let  me  see  or 
hear  of  you  again."  This  however  did  not  satisfy 
the  pheasant-merchant,  who  was  anxious,  if  not  to 
make  a  display  of  his  gratitude,  at  all  events  to 
propitiate  the  good  will  of  the  agent,  and  once 
more  addressed  him.  "Pray,  sir,"  said  he,  "are 
you  a  married  gentleman  ? "  On  being  answered 
in  the  affirmative,  the  nature  of  the  donation  was 
determined  upon.  "  Then,  sir,"  added  he, 
"  allow  me  to  present  your  lady  with  a  monkey  !" 
Well   might  the   man    of  law    have  exclaimed — 

"  Quicquid  id  est  timeo  Danaos  et  dona  ferentes  ; " 

but  when  he  was  made  acquainted  with  the  nature 
of  the  gift,  the  would-be  giver  was  very  soon 
despatched,  and  I  never  heard  whether  he  again 
made  his  appearance,  on  a  similar  errand,  at  Halston. 

The  next  anecdote  that  presents  itself  to  my  mind 
arose  out  of  my  seeing  him  get  out  of  his  carriage  at  a 
cover's  side  and  walk  to  wards  hishunter,  tomounthim. 
"  There  he  goes"  said  Tom  Penn  ;  "  he's  a  lily  ain't 
he.  Give  him  two  hundred  thousand  a  year,  and  I'll 
bet  ahundred  he's  in  debt  in  foive  (five)  years."  But 
it  is  necessary  to  say  who  this  Tom  Penn  is,  or  rather 
was,  for  he  is  also  in  his  grave,  having  broken  his 
neck  in  hunting.     He  was  pad-groom  to  Sir  Watkin 


46  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

Williams  Wynn,  Bart.,  much  looked  up  to,  and 
consequently  often  consulted,  for  his  correct  judg- 
ment of  a  hunter,  by  the  help  of  which,  although 
an  excellent  servant,  he  was  one  of  the  most 
impudent  fellows  that  ever  wore  a  livery — or 
perhaps  more  properly  speaking,  what  is  known  in 
the  lower  world  as  "a  regular  cool  hand." 

Now  a  question  arises,  not  unworthy  of 
discussion.  Did  the  late  Mr.  Mytton  really  enjoy 
life  amidst  all  this  profusion  of  expenditure ;  and 
was  he,  in  the  best  of  his  days,  in  a  situation 
that  many  poor  men  would  covet?  This, 
I  think,  admits  of  a  doubt.  It  is  true  he  had 
most  of  the  requisites  for  a  man  of  a  noble  for- 
tune that  Horace  granted  to  his  friend  Tibullus ; 
but  one  thing  was  wanting  —  the  "  artemque 
fruendi" — the  art  of  enjoying  it,  to  which  he, 
Mytton,  was  a  stranger.  Indeed,  to  a  vitiated 
palate,  always  calling  for  fresh  gratifications,  the 
wealth  of  Crcesus  might  fail  in  procuring  that  one 
thing  wanting  ;  but  there  was  something  about  my 
friend  that  gave  one  the  idea  that,  to  him  it  was 
peculiarly  denied.  There  was  that  about  him 
which  resembled  the  restlessness  of  the  hyena ;  and 
whether  in  the  pursuit  of  his  pastimes,  or  the 
gratification  of  his  passions,  there  was  an  unsteadi- 
ness   throughout    which    evidently    showed,    that, 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  47 

beyond  the  excitement  of  the  passing  moment, 
nothing  afforded  him  sterling  pleasure.  All  those 
who  watched  his  actions  might  perceive,  that  his 
object  was  to  have  a  taste  of  every  thing  that  was 
alluring  and  delicious ;  and,  like  the  bee,  to  rove 
from  flower  to  flower,  merely  culling  a  little  of  the 
sweets  of  each.  Look,  for  example,  at  the  various 
sources  of  amusement  Halston  afforded,  and  the 
small  share  of  calm  enjoyment  they  appeared  to 
afford  the  owner  of  them.  What  elegant  dinners 
have  I  seen  him  sit  down  to  at  his  own  table,  with 
no  more  appetite  to  partake  of  them,  than  an  alder- 
man has  when  singing  "  Non  nobis,  Domine" — 
having  an  hour  or  two  before  been  eating  fat  bacon 
and  drinking  strong  ale  at  some  tenant's  or  other 
farm  house  on  his  road  home  from  his  field  pursuits. 
Again— if  he  had  a  good  race-horse  in  his  stables 
he  would  run  him  off  his  legs,  nearly  to  his  destruc- 
tion ;  and  he  served  his  favourite  hunters  in  the 
same  manner.  All  this  could  have  been  reconciled 
with  youthful  enthusiasm,  and  Welch  blood  ;  but 
with  Mytton  it  could  be  only  traced  to  one  cause, 
which  grew  with  his  growth,  but  did  not  quit  him 
in  his  manhood,  and  finally  plunged  him  into  the 
abyss  of  misery  ! 

But  if  the  proprietor  of  it  himself  was  not  satisfied 
with  the  resources  which  Halston  afforded,  few  of  his 


48  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

friends  were  so  unreasonable  as  to  have  looked  for 
amusement  and  not  found  it,  for  indeed  the  very 
proprietor  of  it  alone,  with  his  various  appendants 
and  his  frolics,  was  a  constant  source  of  mirth.  A 
celebrated  historian  of  the  Augustan  age,  however, 
now  presents  himself  to  my  view,  and  wisely 
reminds  me,  that  decency  is  a  principal  virtue  in  an 
historian,  and  that  he  should  preserve  the  characters 
of  the  persons  as  well  as  the  dignity  of  the  actions 
of  those  of  which  he  treats.  Heretofore  I  trust  I 
have  written  nothing  that  can  be  construed  into 
more  than  an  allowable  levity  of  style,  inseparable 
from  the  chronicling  of  the  sayings  and  doings  of 
such  a  character  as  is  before  me ;  and  as  one  object 
is  to  display  it  in  every  variety  of  colour — and  the 
rainbow  itself  has  not  more — I  must  here  introduce 
a  description  of  an  evening  at  Halston  from  my 
own  pen,  published  ten  years  since  in  the  Sporting 
Magazine.  As  it  commences  with  an  apology  1 
shall  offer  none  here. 

"  •  What  Cato  did,  and  Addison  approved, 
cannot  be  wrong,'  said  a  learned  and  accom- 
plished gentleman  of  the  last  century,  when 
he  put  a  period  to  a  miserable  existence. 
Now  as  the  great  essayist  here  named  intro- 
duced his  friend,  Sir  Roger's  chaplain,  to  the 
world,    perhaps    I    may  be   allowed    to   introduce 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  49 

Mr.  Mytton's.  He  is  a  very  old  acquaintance  of 
mine,  and  I  know  he  will  pardon  me  for  doing  so. 
I  cannot  exactly  say  he  is  to  his  patron  what 
Maecenas  was  to  Augustus,  or  what  Falstaff  was  to 
Henry  ;  but  rather  what  Crispus  was  to  the  Roman 
Emperors.  He  (Crispus)  lived  with  four  of  them  ; 
joked  with  all  of  them ;  and  quarrelled  with  none 
of  them — though  their  ears  were  perhaps  more 
tender  than  their  hearts.  The  Halston  Chaplain, 
however,  is  entitled  to  a  place  in  the  Sporting 
Magazine,  having  given  birth  to  as  much  sport  as 
ever  was  seen  in  a  race,  a  cock-pit,  or  a  fox-chase. 
In  a  style  peculiarly  his  own,  he  says  more  good 
things  than  any  other  man  I  ever  met  with,  and  by 
his  good  humour,  and  inoffensive  jokes,  has  often 
made  the  old  Halston  welkin  ring. 

"  The  connection  between  them  commenced 
thus : — Soon  after  the  Chaplain  left  the  University, 
he  resided  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Halston,  and  was 
fixed  upon  as  a  sort  of  friendly  preceptor  to  the 
heir  apparent  to  the  estate,  both  before,  and  after, 
he  left  Westminster  School ;  and  here,  perhaps, 
one  of  the  best  anecdotes  has  its  source.  It  appears 
there  was  some  difficulty  in  persuading  the  young 
Squire  to  go  to  College ;  and  when  we  con- 
sider a  little,  our  wonder  ceases.  October  is 
the  best  month  for  pheasant-shooting  ;  Christmas 
4 


5o  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

lasts  till  Easter  at  Halston ;  and  hunting, 
fishing,  and  shooting,  last  all  the  year  round. 
The  Chaplain,  however,  was  employed  to 
use  all  his  eloquence  to  induce  him  to 
go,  and  the  following  dialogue  passed  between 
them : 

"  Chaplain.  My  good  sir,  you  must  go  to 
Oxford  :  you  must,  indeed,  sir  ! 

"  Mr.  Mytton.     I'll  see  you first. 

"  Chaplain.  Upon  my  word,  sir,  you  must 
go.  Every  man  of  fortune  ought  to  go  to 
Christ  Church,  if  only  for  a  term  or  so. 

"  Mr.  Mytton.  Well,  then,  if  I  do  go,  I  will 
go  on  the  following  terms. 

"  Chaplain.     What  are  they,  sir  ? 

"  Mr.  Mytton.  Why — that  I  never  open  a 
book. 

"  Chaplain.  Not  the  least  occasion — not  the 
smallest  I  assure  you. 

"Mr.  Mytton.    Very  well  then,  I  don'tmind  going, 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  51 

provided  I  read  nothing  but  the  Racing  Calendar, 
and  the  Stud  Book. 

"  Chaplain.  Excellent  books,  sir  ;  they  will  do 
very  well  indeed. 

"  The  next  amusing  anecdote  of  the  Chaplain 
arose  out  of  the  following  circumstance : — Going 
one  morning,  as  usual,  to  serve  the  family  church 
at  Halston,  Mr.  Mytton  contrived  to  take  his 
sermon  out  of  his  pocket,  and  substitute  in  its 
place  the  last  number  of  the  Sporting  Magazine. 
When  the  Chaplain  had  mounted  the  rostrum, 
and  was  preparing  to  throw  off,  he  found  his 
mistake,  and,  of  course,  had  nothing  to  do  but 
to  apologise  to  his  hearers  for  the  loss  of  his 
sermon,  and,  *  with  a  well-bred  whisper,  close 
the  scene.'  It  is  also  said  of  him,  that  having 
a  tender  regard  for  his  patron,  and  knowing  the 
natural  kindness  of  his  disposition,  he  has  always 
avoided  wantonly  hurting  his  feelings ;  so  that, 
on  some  occasions,  when  it  has  been  his  inten- 
tion to  preach  a  sermon,  which,  to  use  his  own 
words,  he  feared  might  '  hit  him  hard,'  he  has 
been  prepared  with  another,  '  in  case  the  Squire 
should  be  in  church.' 

"  There  is  another  story  of  the  Chaplain,  which, 


52  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

though  it  has  been  before  recorded  in  the  Sporting 
Magazine,  yet  it  was  not  placed  to  his  credit, 
but  to  him  alone  is  it  due.  About  five  years 
back,  he  applied  to  his  Diocesan  to  give  him 
a  living,  and  the  Bishop  promised  him  the  first 
that  was  vacant.  Having  a  pretty  private  fortune 
of  his  own,  and  not  aspiring  to  a  mitre,  the 
Chaplain  took  the  liberty  of  requesting  that  his 
Lordship  would  not  send  him  into  the  Welch 
mountains,  but  give  him  an  English  living.  The 
Bishop,  knowing  him  to  be  a  thorough  -  bred 
Welchman  (and,  indeed,  no  one  could  take  him 
for  a  half-bred  one),  demanded  him  hia  reasons 
for  such  a  request?  'Why,  my  Lord,'  said  the 
Chaplain,  '  my  wife  does  not  speak  Welch.' — 
*  Your  wife,  sir  ! '  said  his  Diocesan,  '  what  has 
your  wife  to  do  with  it  ?  She  does  not  preach, 
does  she  ! ' — '  No,  my  Lord,'  said  the  Chaplain, 
'  but  she  lectures ! '  The  Bishop,  as  may  be 
expected,  took  all  this  in  good  part,  and  the 
Chaplain  was  soon  afterwards  exalted  to  a  living 
in  the  wildest  part  of  the  Welch  mountains. 

"  No  man  was  ever  more  free  from  guile  than  the 

Chaplain  of  Halston,  and  Rector  of .     Indeed, 

some  of  his  intimate  friends  have  doubted  whether  he 
has  enough  of  this  subtle  art  to  enable  him  to  go 
through  the  world  with  eclat.     Being  once  on  a  visit 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  53 

at  an  old  lady's  house,  who  prided  herself  on  the 
excellence  of  her  cook,  he  was  requested  to  carve 
the  bottom  dish.  On  being  asked  to  help  the 
old  lady  herself,  he  addressed  her  thus : — *  Pray, 
madam,  how  do  you  like  it  ?  Here  is  some  very 
much  done, — some  very  little  done, — and  some  not 
done  at  all.1  On  another  occasion  he  was  dining 
with  an  old  gentleman  in  Gloucestershire,  who 
plumed  himself  on  the  celebrity  of  his  ale.  On 
hearing  that  the  chaplain  was  a  Welchman,  and 
reckoned  a  good  judge,  he  ordered  a  fresh  cask  to 
be  tapped,  and  pledged  him  in  a  bumper  of  it  after 
his  cheese.  No  encomium  being  passed  on  it,  the 
old  gentleman  ventured  to  ask  him  how  he  liked 
his  ale  ?  — '  Why,  sir,'  said  the  chaplain,  '  tve 
should  call  it  very  good  small  beer  in  Wales.1 

"  I  have  before  observed,  that  the  Halston 
chaplain  can  neither  be  compared  to  Maecenas, 
nor  to  FalstafF —  being  completely  '  sui  generis.1 
Some  years  since,  however,  he  put  me  in  mind  of 
a  scene  between  the  latter  and  his  prince.  We  had 
had  rather  a  hard  night  at  Halston,  and  our  host 
was  taking  a  nap,  at  full  length,  on  the  sofa. 
After  looking  at  him  for  some  time,  his  old 
preceptor  broke  out  into  the  following  soliloquy : 
1  Only  think,  sir,  what  the  Squire,  with  his  abilities, 
might  have  been,  and  only  see  what  he  is  !  * 


54  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

"  On  Sunday  last,  as  is  his  usual  custom  after 
the  duties  of  the  morning,  the  chaplain  entered 
upon  those  of  the  evening,  and  took  his  place 
behind  the  beef.  Here,  Lord  Chesterfield  him- 
self never  displayed  a  better  grace  ;  for  amid  the 
blaze  and  radiance  of  nine  gold  and  three  silver 
cups — the  fruits  of  some  well-contested  races — 
his  rosy  face  outshone  them  all ;  and  it  may  be 
said  of  him,  without  offence  to  any  one,  that  he 
is  equally  orthodox  in  the  bottle  as  in  the  wood — 
being  a  Christian  at  all  times,  and  one  of  the  best- 
natured  parsons  in  the  universe." 

Alas !  the  chaplain  did  not  long  survive  his 
friend  and  patron ;  and  it  is  generally  believed, 
that  his  accumulated  distresses,  his  fallen  state, 
and  his  miserable  end,  accelerated  his  own  death. 
At  all  events,  I  am  informed  that  the  words 
"  poor  Mytton  "  were  nearly  the  last  he  uttered. 


PART    II 

"\  X7ITH  what  extraordinary  characters  of  ancient 
and  modern  times  would  John  Mytton  stand 
a  comparison  ?  With  Nero  ?  Yes ;  for  Nero  fiddled 
whilst  Rome  was  burning,  and  Mytton  would  have 
laughed  had  he  seen  Halston  in  flames.  But 
Nero  murdered  his  mother,  and  Mytton  made  a 
noble  provision  for  his.1  With  Timon  of  Athens  ? 
Yes,  as  a  spendthrift ;  but  the  one  hated,  and  the 
other  was  kind  to,  all  mankind.  With  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  ?  Yes,  for  his  historian  says  of  him — 
"  Extreme  agitation  was  the  basis  of  his  exist- 
ence ;  motion  was  his  repose ;  he  lived  in  a 
hurricane,  and  fattened  on  anxiety  and  care." 
But  one  drank  coffee  seven  times  a  day,  and 
the  other  drank  as  many  bottles  of  port  wine  !  ! 
With  the  poet  Byron  ?  Yes,  inasmuch  as  each 
was  at  Harrow  school,  and  each  fought  eight 
pitched  battles  during  the  time  he  remained  there. 
With  Savage  —  immortalized  by  his  biographer, 
Johnson  ?  Yes,  as  far  as  each  had  a  distinct- 
ive mark  of  genius   and   originality,   which  ranks 

1  He  added  £500  per  annum  to  her  jointure. 
55 


56  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

high  amongst  the  qualities  of  the  human  mind,  and 
each  was  very  deficient  in  the  to  Trpiirov.  But 
one  was  chiefly  known  by  his  poverty,  his  mis- 
fortunes, and  his  wit ;  the  other  inherited  riches, 
and  might  have  set  fortune's  malice  at  defiance. 

The  strongest  resemblance  I  can  select,  is 
between  the  characters  of  the  celebrated  Earl 
of  Rochester  and  the  subject  of  this  memoir ; 
although  in  the  points  on  which  they  differ,  the 
balance  is  favourable  to  the  latter.  Let  us  select 
the  most  prominent  features  and  see  how  far  they 
tally,  and  in  what  they  differ  : — 

Rochester's  person  was  well  shaped,  and  no 
man  showed  more  good  breeding,  in  society. 
Ditto  John  Mytton. 

Rochester  thought  his  constitution  was  so 
strong,  that  nothing  could  hurt  it.  Ditto  John 
Mytton. 

"  Rochester,"  says  Bishop  Burnet,  "  had  a 
violent  love  of  pleasure,  and  a  disposition  to 
extravagant  mirth ;  the  one  involved  him  in  great 
sensuality ;  the  other  led  him  to  many  odd  adven- 
tures and  frolics,  in  which  he  was  often  in  hazard 
of  his  life."     Ditto  John  Mytton. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  57 

Rochester  was  turned  loose  into  the  world  at  a 
very  early  age,  and  so  was  John  Mytton.  The 
one  entered  the  navy,  the  other  the  Seventh 
Hussars. 

Rochester  distinguished  himself  in  an  engage- 
ment.    Mytton  was  never  in  one. 

Rochester  once  made  himself  a  mountebank. 
Mytton  was  always  more  or  less  one. 

Rochester  was  drunk,  for  five  years  continually. 
Mytton  beat  him  by  seven.1 

Rochester  "  pursued  low  amours,  in  mean  dis- 
guises." Mytton,  in  propria  persona,  seldom 
pursued  any  other. 

Rochester  slunk  away  from  his  friend  in  a 
street-row.  Mytton  rather  would  have  remained 
to  have  been  pummelled  to  death. 

The  Duke  of  Buckingham  left  it  on  record  that 

1  I  am  sorry  to  say  one  of  his  oldest  friends,  and  a 
regular  "  pot-companion,"  made  an  affidavit — to  serve 
a  certain  purpose — that  he  (Mytton)  had  been  drunk 
for  twelve  successive  years  !  I  think  it  would  have  been 
better  that  he  had  had  recourse  to  the  "  Non  mi  recordo." 


58  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

Rochester   refused    to    fight   him.      Mytton   was 
never  put  to  that  test. 

Rochester  wrote  libels,  in  which  he  did  not 
stick  to  truth.  Mytton  never  said  illnatured  things, 
much  less  published  them. 

Rochester  was  eminent  for  the  vigour  of  his 
colloquial  wit.  Mytton  was  deaf,  and  therefore 
could  not  shine  in  conversation.  He  dealt,  chiefly, 
in  practical  jokes. 

Rochester  is  mentioned  by  Wood  as  the 
best  scholar  of  all  the  nobility.  Mytton  might 
have  harangued  an  Athenian  mob,  if  he  had 
gone  steadily  through  Harrow,  or  Westminster 
school. 

Burnet  says,  "  Rochester  played  many  wild 
frolics  which  it  is  not  for  his  honour  that  we 
should  remember."     Ditto  John  Mytton. 

Burnet  "  touched  as  tenderly  as  occasion 
would  bear  "  Rochester's  faults.  Mytton's 
spiritual  adviser  never  touched  his  at  all,  if  he 
could  avoid  it. 

The  good  Bishop  tells  us  Dr.  Balfour  "drew 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  59 

Rochester  to  read  such  books  as  were  most  likely 
to  bring  him  back  to  love  learning  and  study." 
Mytton's  tutor  recommended  the  Racing  Calendar 
and  the  Stud  Book  ;  nevertheless  he  was  well  read  in 
the  classics,  though  perhaps  not  so  well  as  Rochester 
was.  The  natural  talent  of  each  was  excellent ; 
each  was  generous  and  kind-hearted  ;  and  "  video 
meliora  proboque  ;  deteriora  sequor"  "  I  see  what  is 
better  and  approve  it ;  but  follow  what  is  worse," 
would  have  been  a  suitable  motto  for  both.  But 
Rochester  was  profane,  which  Mytton  never  was. 

But  I  must  draw  this  parallel  to  a  close. 
Rochester  was  charitable  to  the  poor  and  kind  to 
his  servants,  and  so  was  Mytton — perhaps  to  a  still 
greater  degree. 

Rochester  made  himself  mad  with  drink. — Ditto 
John  Mytton.  Was  not  the  best  of  husbands. — 
Ditto  John  Mytton.  Trusted  to  a  death-bed  re- 
pentance. —  Ditto  John  Mytton.  Promised  to 
amend  his  life  if  he  recovered  from  his  severe 
illness.  So  did  old  Nick — at  least  so  the  story 
goes ;  but  John  Mytton  never  promised  what  he 
did  not  think  he  should  perform.  The  one 
exhausted  his  life  at  the  age  of  thirty-three,  and 
the  other  of  thirty-eight ;  and  although  both  en- 
tered the  vineyard  at  nearly  the  eleventh  hour — for 


6o  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

sackcloth  and  ashes  suited  neither  of  their  tastes — 
they  both  died  in  penitence  and  prayer. 

Mr.  Mytton's  amours,  like  Jupiter's,  are  too 
numerous  for  recital,  yet  having  been  for  the  most 
part  of  the  lowest  description,  they  were  chiefly 
injurious  only  to  himself,  and  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  heart.  But  there  was  this  peculiarity  in 
them :  —  I  am  quite  sure  Mr.  Mytton  never 
attempted  the  wife  of  a  friend — no,  nor  even  his 
mistress  !  Each  would  have  been  as  safe  in  his 
hands  as  the  beautiful  captive  was  in  those  of 
Scipio,  or  the  wife  and  daughters  of  Darius  in  the 
tent  of  Alexander  the  Great.  Indeed  I  never 
heard  of  his  laying  siege  to  the  virtue  of  any  woman, 
but  if  in  the  market,  he  was  sure  to  be  the  best 
bidder  ;  and  I  fear  I  must  own,  that  he  once  or  twice 
took  it  by  storm.  Some  of  his  offers  for  capitula- 
tion, however,  were  truly  ridiculous,  though  all  in 
character  with  the  man.  For  example — he  once 
wrote  a  note  to  a  certain  celebrated  singer,  whom  he 
had  only  seen  for  half  an  hour,  at  a  musical  festival, 
requesting  the  honour  of  an  interview  the  next  day, 
and  enclosing  a  cheque  at  sight,  on  the  Oswestry 
bank,  for  five  hundred  guineas  !  The  lady — who 
all  the  world  know  would  have  been  quite  satisfied 
with  a  ten  pound  note — having  luckily  never  heard 
either    of  John    Mytton    or    the    Oswestry    bank, 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  61 

returned  the  note  with  its  valuable  contents.  This 
reminds  me  of  the  following  lines  in  a  poem  called 
"  The  Passions,"  a  fair  specimen  of  heterogeneous 
bathos : — 

"  Human  appetites  how  strong, 
When  love  exults  on  fancy's  fairy  plains, 
Or  hunger  views  the  mutton  at  the  Jlre ! 

His  popularity,  independently  of  family  associa- 
tions, and  recollection  of  ages  long  since  gone  by  ; 
the  dashing  personal  character,  and  extreme  and 
unaffected  good  humour  of  the  late  squire  of 
Halston ;  together  with  his  fox-hounds,  his  race- 
horses, his  game,  his  wine,  his  ale,  and  many  other 
things  besides,  rendered  him  extremely  popular  in 
Shropshire  ;  and  if  he  had  but  been  possessed  of  a 
fair  share  of  the  to  7rpe7rov,  so  much  esteemed  by 
the  ancients,  and  so  expressive  of  that  exterior 
propriety  of  conduct,  in  the  common  intercourse 
of  life,  which  the  world  is  very  unwilling  to 
dispense  with,  he  might  have  represented  the 
County  of  Salop  in  parliament  as  long  as  he  liked 
to  have  done  so  ;  it  being  the  general  opinion, 
that  almost  all  the  independent  freeholders  would 
have  supported  him.  But  this  is  the  class  of 
all  others  who  dislike  seeing  a  gentleman  sink 
in  the  social  scale  ?  and  when  I  was  last  in 
Shropshire,  I  was  sorry  to    find    my  old  friend's 


62  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

popularity  was  on  the  wane.  His  honour  and  his 
honesty  were  still  unsullied  ;  his  heart  was  as  kind 
as  it  ever  had  been  ;  but  the  nearly  constant  state 
of  intoxication  in  which  he  lived,  was,  I  could 
perceive,  become  somewhat  insufferable  to  his  oldest 
friends.  Neither  was  this  the  worst.  His 
associating  himself  with  a  late  well-known  sporting 
character,  immeasurably  inferior  to  himself  in  every 
possible  point  of  view,  gave  the  finishing  blow,  and 
who  can  wonder  at  it  ?  for  it  must  have  been  not 
only  repulsive  to  good  taste  but  extremely  mortify- 
ing to  his  friends  to  see  Mr.  Mytton  of  Halston, 
with  his  natural  talents  and  accomplishments,  to 
say  nothing  of  his  connections,  making  a  bosom 
friend  of  a  man  who  had  once  filled  the  honourable 
post  of  a  waterman  to  a  hackney-coach  stand  ! 
But  there  are  moral  as  well  as  fabulous  Actaeons 
in  this  world,  who  are  surely  devoured  by  objects 
of  their  own  choosing,  and  here  we  have  an 
instance  of  it.  In  what  way  however  can  we 
account  for  a  mind  that  had  tasted  the  learning 
and  elegance  of  Athens  and  Rome  finding  itself  at 
ease  in  such  an  unsuitable  association  ?  Why  only 
by  its  being  reduced  to  a  state  of  perfect  apathy  and 
imbecility  by  the  repetition  of  vicious  and  debili- 
tating indulgences. 

There  is  but  one  excuse  for  a  man  being  almost 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  63 

perpetually  intoxicated  and  prostituting  the  reason 
of  the  man  to  the  appetite  of  the  brute  ;  and  that 
is — the  attempt  to  divert  grief  which  he  has  found 
it  impossible  to  subdue.  As  a  balm  for  wounds 
which  can  never  heal,  or  under  the  accumulated 
pressure  of  pecuniary  difficulties,  the  bottle  will  be 
resorted  to  so  long  as  the  world  shall  stand,  and 
who  can  condemn  the  wretch  that  tries  the 
experiment  ?  But  the  subject  of  this  memoir  had 
not  such  excuses  to  plead  for  his  excess  in  drinking, 
neither  will  I  endeavour  to  find  them  for  him. 
It  was,  however,  to  him  the  Circean  cup — the 
bane  of  his  respectability,  his  health,  his  happiness, 
and  every  thing  that  was  dear  to  him  as  a  man  and 
a  gentleman ;  and  can  this  be  marvelled  at  ?  It 
is  written  of  Hercules,  that  he  acquired  his  immense 
strength  by  feeding  on  the  marrow  of  lions,  and 
how  powerful  must  have  been  the  stimulus  of  the 
almost  unheard-of  quantity  of  from  four  to  six  bottles 
of  port  wine  daily,  on  that  volcanic  excitability  of 
mind,  which  was,  not  only  by  nature,  Mr.  Mytton's, 
but  which  had  been  acted  upon,  and  increased,  by 
a  severe  affection  of  the  brain,  at  an  early  period  of 
life  !  Thus,  then,  although  I  offer  no  excuse  for  his 
drinking,  his  drinking — for  men  are  tried  by  wine, 
says  the  proverb,  as  metals  are  by  lire — furnishes 
excuses,  I  should  rather  have  said  apologies,  for  his 
conduct,  inasmuch  as  his  reason  was,  to  a  certain 


64  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

extent,  lost  in  delirium,  caused  by  the  fumes  of 
wine,  on  an  already  somewhat  distempered  brain. 
Many  of  his  acts  were  not  the  acts  of  John  Mytton 
but  of  a  man  mad,  half  by  nature,  and  half  by  iv'ine, 
and  I  think  his  best  and  dearest  friends  are 
decidedly  of  my  opinion. 

From  this  account  of  its  Host,  it  may  be 
supposed  that  Halston  was  a  scene  of  general 
dissipation  and  riot.  By  no  means.  In  short,  I 
cannot  bring  to  my  recollection  a  single  instance  of 
being  one  of  what  may  be  termed  a  drunken  party, 
during  my  frequent  visits  to  the  house.  But  this  is 
accounted  for  in  more  ways  than  one.  The  host 
had  always  the  start  of  his  friends,  in  the  first 
place ;  and  in  the  next,  long  sittings  were  not 
in  accordance  with  his  restless  disposition.  In 
the  summer  he  would  jump  out  of  the  window, 
and  be  off.  In  the  winter,  he  was  anxious  to 
get  to  the  billiard  table,  which  was  always  lighted 
up  after  coffee,  for  the  amusement  of  himself  and  his 
friends,  and  here  he  was  in  his  element.  How  then, 
it  may  be  asked,  did  he  consume  that  quantity  of  port 
wine  ?  Why  this  question  is  easily  answered.  He 
shaved  with  a  bottle  of  it  on  his  toilet ;  he  worked 
steadily  at  it  throughout  the  day,  by  a  glass  or  two  at 
a  time,  and  at  least  a  bottle  with  his  luncheon ;  and 
the  after  dinner  and  after  supper  work — not  losing 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  65 

sight  of  it  in  the  billiard  room  —  completed  the 
Herculean  task.  No  wonder,  then,  that  Alexander 
the  Great  has  been  called  "a  fool  to  him,"  in 
his  Bacchanalian  feats,  at  all  events  he  would  have 
been  a  good  playfellow  for  him  at  Persepolis  ;  or  that 
— as  Cicero  said  of  Piso — "  his  breath  smelt  like 
a  vintner's  vault."  He  is,  however,  a  memorable 
example  of  the  comparatively  harmless  effects  of 
very  good  wine,  which  he  always  had,  and 
just  of  a  proper  age — about  eight  years  old — 
for,  assisted  by  exercise,  such  as  he  took,  it 
was  many  years  before  it  injured  him.  But  alas — 
wine  at  length  lost  its  charms.  Brandy — which  he 
was  a  stranger  to  when  I  was  last  at  Halston — was 
substituted,  and  the  constitution  of  John  Mytton, 
perhaps  the  hardest  ever  bestowed  upon  man,  was  not 
proof  against  that.1 

But  away,  for  a  moment,  with  all  recollection  of  his 
ill-doings,  and  let  us  move  onwards  towards  his  good 
ones — for  it  is  a  loss  to  mankind  when  good  actions 
are  forgotten.    Be  assured,  reader — whoever  you  may 

1  It  would  be  absurd  to  offer  apology  for  these  remarks, 
after  the  inquest  on  the  body  of  my  departed  friend, 
which  went  the  round  of  the  Newspapers.  Besides  my 
object  being  to  rescue  his  memory  from  imputations  that 
lie  against  it,  and,  in  some  cases  not  unjustly,  it  is  in  mercy 
— a  dreadful  alternative  I  admit — that  I  exhibit  him  to 
the  world  as  both  a  drunkard  and  a  madman. 
5 


66  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

be — that  if  all  the  kind,  good,  and  charitable  acts 
which  poor  drunken,  mad,  John  Mytton  performed, 
were  placed  in  counterpoise  to  his  bad  ones,  it 
would  be  more  than  man  dared  do  to  say  which 
side  might  kick  the  beam.  At  all  events,  like 
charity,  they  would  weigh  heavily  to  his  credit ; 
and  it  is  consoling  to  his  friends  to  reflect,  that 
although  great  part  of  that  fine  property  he  once 
possessed  has  passed  away  to  others,  and  the  too 
liberal  possessor  of  it  is  in  his  grave,  those  deeds  still 
remain  nvith  him.  Man,  it  is  true,  is  naturally  a 
beneficent  creature  ;  but  be  the  benefit  he  confers 
never  so  great,  the  manner  of  conferring  it  is  the 
noblest  part,  and  in  allusion  to  my  friend,  let  me 
illustrate  this  by  one  simple  fact : — 

When  Mr.  Mytton  was  at  Calais,  only  a  few 
months  before  his  death,  he  chanced  to  be  in  a 
silversmith's  shop,  when  a  French  soldier  entered 
it,  with  a  watch  in  his  hand,  which  he  said  he 
wished  to  dispose  of  for  the  benefit  of  a  sick 
comrade,  who  wanted  some  further  comforts  than 
a  barrack  afforded.  On  the  silversmith  objecting 
to  the  price  demanded,  Mr.  Mytton  threw  down  the 
money,  and  took  up  the  watch.  "  Merciez,1  Mon- 
sieur," said  the  soldier,  and  something  else  besides,  ex- 
pressive of  his  grateful  feelings.    "  Take  this  to  your 

1  Short  for — -je  -vous  remerciez. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  67 

comrade  also,"  said  Mytton,  placing  the  watch  in 
his  hand.  "  Ah  Monsieur  Anglais !  "  exclaimed 
the  man — "  Que  vous  dirai-je  ?  "  1 

Mytton  replied,  "  Rien."  2  Remember,  reader  ! 
this  was  not  in  his  golden  days,  when  money  was 
as  dross ;  it  was  one  of  the  last  acts  of  a  noble 
soul,  performed  out  of  almost  the  last  of  the  wreck 
of  a  splendid  income. 

The  sentimental  Sterne  would  have  made  a 
pathetic  story  out  of  this  little  incident,  whereas 
I  shall  leave  it  to  speak  for  itself;  but  Mytton 
felt  what  Sterne  only  made  others  feel,  neither 
does  the  difference  between  them  rest  here. 
The  one  is  said  to  have  whined  over  a  dead 
ass,  and  starved  a  living  mother.  The  other 
would  have  laughed  at  the  dead  donkey  — 
perhaps  have  ridden  him  to  death  —  but  he 
settled  a  handsome  annuity  on  his  mother ! 
Such  instances,  however,  are  of  very  ancient 
date ;  Aristides  practised  what  Cato  only 
preached. 

Another  instance  of  his  excessive  philanthropy 
and  over-generous  all-forgiving  temper  occurs  to  me 
at  this  moment,  which  I  may  here  introduce,  though 
1  What  shall  I  say  to  you  ?  2  Nothing. 


68  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

perhaps  not  without  somewhat  retrograding  in  my 
arrangement. 

As  I  was  passing  through  Shrewsbury,  some 
years  back,  on  my  road  to  Halston,  I  saw  a  servant 
of  his  in  the  town,  and  asked  him  if  he  had  accom- 
panied his  master.  "  I  have  left  Mr.  Mytton's 
service,  sir,"  said  the  man.  "  How  so  ?  "  observed 
I,  with  surprise,  knowing  him  to  have  been  a 
favourite  servant.  His  answer  was,  that  in  an  evil 
hour  he  had  been  induced  to  alter  a  figure  in  a  bill 
of  Mr.  Lucas,  the  Veterinary-surgeon,  at  Atherstone, 
who  had  attended  one  of  his  master's  horses, 
and  it  having  been  discovered  by  the  agent,  he 
had  been  discharged.  The  morning  after  I  arrived 
at  Halston,  I  was  told  there  was  a  person  wanted 
to  speak  with  me  in  the  stable-yard,  and  there 
stood  John,  with  a  very  sorrowful  countenance. 
His  object  was  to  induce  me  to  intercede  for  him 
with  his  master,  and  just  as  I  was  in  the  act  of 
discussing  the  point,  Mr.  Mytton  made  his  appear- 
ance. John  protested  it  was  the  only  instance  of 
his  dishonesty  (and  indeed  the  man  bore  an 
excellent  character,  having  lived  nine  years  previ- 
ously with  a  clergyman  in  Shropshire)  ;  and  that 
he  should  not  have  thought  of  committing  it  but  for 
a  certain  ostler  on  the  road,  who  persuaded  him  to 
it ;  and  was  about  to  proceed  in  the  same  suppli- 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  69 

eating  manner,  when  Mytton  seized  him  by  the 
collar,  and  giving  him  one  of  his  horse-like  kicks, 
told  him  to  go  into  the  servants'  hall,  and  put  on 
his  livery  again  !  John  cared  nothing  for  the 
kick ;  but  on  a  very  strong  remonstrance  from  the 
agent — who  indeed  went  so  far  as  to  say,  he 
should  throw  up  his  agency  if  such  conduct  were 
passed  over — John  was  once  more  drafted  from 
Halston  servants'  hall. 

I  conceive  no  one  knew  the  limits  of  Mr. 
Mytton's  natural  talents.  No  doubt  they  were 
excellent ;  and  if  instead  of  having  been  prostrated 
to  the  excess  of  wine,  and  its  concomitant  dissipa- 
tion, they  had  been  cultivated  and  improved  to  the 
utmost,  they  might  have  enabled  him  to  have  cut 
a  figure  in  the  senate  or  as  a  scholar.  He  read 
with  unusual  rapidity,  and  evidently  retained  what 
he  did  read ;  for  his  literary  acquisitions  were 
surprising,  considering  the  life  of  tumult  he  had  led. 
He  had  always  a  quotation  at  hand  from  a  Greek 
or  Latin  author,  and  there  was  a  conscious  feeling 
of  ability  about  him,  which  he  was  somewhat 
wont  to  display.  But,  what  says  the  poet  ? 
"  Without  a  genius  learning  soars  in  vain, 

And  without  learning,  genius  sinks  again  ; 

Their  force  united  crowns  the  sprightly  reign  ; " 

and  here  was  this  union  wanting.     He  also  wrote  his 


70  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

letters  —  to  use  a  sporting  figure  —  at  the  rate  of 
twenty  miles  in  the  hour — generally  at  his  dinner 
table,  sending  them  out  by  his  butler  to  be  sealed, 
and  very  often  to  be  directed,  for  he  never  had 
a  secret  in  his  life ;  and  the  letters  he  received 
remained  for  general  inspection.  I  regret  not 
having  one  of  them  to  transcribe,  but  his  off-hand 
addresses  to  his  constituents,  during  his  first  contest 
for  Shrewsbury  in  1819,  were  particularly  neat  and 
appropriate,  and  were  sent  to  the  press  before  the 
ink  with  which  they  were  written  was  dry.  How 
much  then  is  it  to  be  lamented,  that  a  man  who  had 
such  resources  for  spending  his  life  in  the  pleasantest, 
as  well  as  the  most  honourable  occupations,  'should 
have  thus  abused  his  mental  powers,  and  subjected 
himself  to  misery  of  any  kind  beyond  that  which 
is  common  to  all ;  and  that  repose  and  retirement, 
the  secret  wish  of  mankind,  should  by  him  have 
been  considered  valueless,  if  not  irksome. 

By  the  way,  it  is  in  my  power  to  produce  some 
specimens  of  Mr.  Mytton's  off-hand  style  of  writ- 
ing, in  two  of  his  addresses  to  the  Freeholders  of 
Salop,  on  his  last  unsuccessful  attempt  to  become 
one  of  their  representatives,  in  1 83 1  ;  but  they  fall 
far  short  of  the  others  both  in  matter  and  style. 
In  fact  they  bear  evidence  of  a  mind  in  decay,  and 
sinking  with  the  general  wreck. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  71 

ADDRESS  (No.  1). 

Mr.  Mytton's  first  address  to  the  Freeholders  of 
Shropshire. — 183 1. 

"To  the  Freeholders  of  the  County  of  Salop. 

"  Gentlemen, — Domestic  affliction  of  no  slight 
or  common  nature  has  latterly  limited  my  inter- 
course with  you.  My  wishes  for  the  prosperity 
of  my  native  county  have  ever  in  absence  held 
their  usual  sway. — Having  once  had  the  honour 
of  representing  your  County  Town  in  Parlia- 
ment ;  feeling  that  various  avocations  precluded 
the  conscientious  performance  of  my  duty  to 
my  Constituents,  I  declined  the  Representation  at 
the  dissolution  of  that  Parliament.  I  have  now 
no  wife  —  no  family — no  hounds  —  no  horses — 
(some  will  say,  no  steadiness  of  purpose) — but 
feeling  that  I  can  devote  myself  to  your  service, 
should  you  honour  me  with  your  support  and 
confidence,  I  venture  to  offer  myself  to  your 
notice  as  a  Candidate  for  the  County,  totally 
unshackled  by  prejudice  or  otherwise,  and  a 
strenuous  advocate  for  Reform. 

"  Relying  upon  the  strength  of  the  cause  I  shall 
advocate,  I  throw  myself  upon  your  favour,  and  shall 


72  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

assuredly  take  the  sense  of  the  county.  I  shall 
look  to  the  vote  of  every  Independent  Freeholder, 
without  making  further  professions. 

"  Your  faithful  friend  and  servant, 

"JOHN  MYTTON. 

«  *^*  peculiar  private  business  may  prevent  my 
personal  attendance,  but  I  look  upon  it  as  a 
favourable  omen — knowing  that  when  absent  you 
are  best  remembered. 

"May  4th,  1831." 


ADDRESS  (No.  2). 

"  Friends !     Men  of  Salop, 

"  In  declining  longer  to  continue  the  unequal 
contest  in  which  I  am  embarked,  I  trust  you  will 
not  consider  my  word  forfeited.  I  have  (and  I 
trust  with  your  approbation),  come  forward  to 
assert  the  rights  of  freemen,  and  to  break  the  bonds 
of  tyranny  asunder ! 

"  Show  yourselves  the  Proud  Salopians  ! 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  73 

"  Gentlemen, — I  pledge  myself  to  come  forward 
at  the  next  Election  for  this  great  County,  which 
I  have  already  shaken  to  its  foundation  by  my 
attempt  to  assert  its  independence,  which  shall 
be  maintained  with  the  vigour  of  a  tiger,  and  the 
courage  of  the  lion  !  Let  your  voice,  as  the  Falls 
of  Niagara,  rush  in  force,  and  with  the  greatest 
velocity  bear  the  fragile  barks  of  corruption  (which 
of  necessity  must  be  destroyed)  to  some  land, 
perhaps  at  present  unknown,  but  let  them  not  be 
borne  to  the  shores  of  Britain. 

"  I  have  asked  no  advice,  —  much  has  been 
offered,  and  maturely  weighed,  during  this  contest ; 
but,  Gentlemen,  did  I  not  feel  myself  capable  upon 
reflection,  of  duly  considering  any  subject  which 
may  fall  under  my  notice,  I  should  feel  myself 
unworthy  of  looking  for  your  approval.  I  came 
forth  uncalled  for,  unprotected  by  any  great 
interest ;  I  retire  from  this  contest  in  confidence  of 
victory  in  future  ;  I  adopt  one  line  of  conduct,  and 
from  that  I  will  not  swerve. 

"  My  thanks  for  the  Unbought  Votes  of  nearly 
Four  Hundred  Honest  Men,  are  gratefully  ten- 
dered to  them  ; — the  cause  of  Freedom  in  our 
devoted  County  will  assume  a  brighter  complexion. 

"  Gentlemen,  -  You  will  find  me  at  my  Post,  the  first 


74  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

moment  that  a  Reformed  Parliament  will  allow  it. 
My  reception  among  you  has,  indeed,  been  proud ; 
I  beg  to  thank  you  for  that  exhibition  of  sincerely 
popular  feeling  in  my  favour,  so  strongly  and  so 
universally  evinced. 

"  I  tender  my  best  thanks  to  the  Ladies,  for  the 
smiles  I  have  witnessed.  Let  me  now  intreat  of 
you  to  allow  the  proceedings  of  Monday,  to  pass 
without  riot  or  disturbance,  as  it  would  only  entail 
disgrace  upon  the  cause  I  advocate. 

"  I  am,  Gentlemen, 

"  Your  Servant, 

"JOHN  MYTTON. 

"Shrewsbury,  May  14th,  1831." 


Nor  are  the  two  following  squibs  by  any  means 
amiss.  But  Mr.  Mytton's  chance  to  represent  his 
native  county  was  slight  indeed,  having  only  polled 
311  votes,  the  "proud  Salopians,"  much  to 
their  credit,  not  by  any  means  approving  of  the 
degrading  association  with  which  they  perceived 
him  to  be  leagued.  There  was  a  time,  as  I  have 
before  expressed  myself,  when  he  would  have  cut  a 
very  different  figure  at  the  poll. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  75 

Squib   (No.  I). 

«  MYTTON  AND  BEARDSWORTH. 

"An  Electioneering  Squib. 

"  Arrived  last  week  in  this  Town,  an  old  broken- 
down  Racer,  from  the  '  Union  Repository,' 
Birmingham,  with  two  Black  Legs,  fresh  fired  and 
blistered.  He  is  attended  by  an  old  Groom, 
grown  grey  in  the  Service,  who  has  jockied  him, 
unbridled,  through  many  unlucky  courses,  and 
who,  having  lately  considerably  lightened  his 
Weight,  flatters  himself  he  will  Reform  his 
style  of  running.  The  old  Horse  starts  for  the 
County  Stakes  this  week ;  to  be  run  for  on  the 
Quarry  Course.  The  odds  are  500  to  1  against 
him;  nevertheless  the  Brums,  (i.e.,  Brummagems) 
are  in  high  spirits,  he  being  backed  by  a  few 
respectable  branches  of  the  MoB-ility  here. 
Gentlemen  are  recommended  not  to  go  too  near 
the  Horse,  he  being  vicious  and  apt  to  kick.  It 
is  understood,  that  should  he  not  win,  the  Pro- 
prietor will  take  the  Horse  back  with  him  to 
Birmingham,  thinking  to  work  him  in  a  Slow 
Coach  and  '  black  jobs,'  until  he  is  fit  for  the 
nacker. 

"  Shrewsbury,  May  9th,  1831." 


76  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

Squib  (No.   2). 

"  A  Reform  Candidate's  Speech." 

"  Yes  !   gentlemen,  upon  my  soul, 

I  thank  you  much  for  what  you've  done ; 
Though  at  the  bottom  of  the  Poll, 
I've  too  much  '  Bottom  '  yet  to  run. 

"  I  told  you  all,  when  first  I  came, 

You'd  not  find  me  the  man  to  shirk ; — 
To  play  on — now  I've  lost  the  game, 
Does  seem  like  devilish  up-HiLL  work.1 

"  '  Reform's  '  my  vessel,  mann'd  by  Brums, 
Who  hoist  me  for  their  '  Union  Jack ' ; 
She'll  fight  till  Captain  Beardsworth  comes 
To  steer  her  on  some  other  tack. 

"  Yes  !   he  has  nail'd  me  to  the  mast, 
Without  a  rag  of  canvass  going ; 
And  though  we  are  capsiz'd  at  last, 

The  Captain  '  rais'd  the  wind '  that's  blow- 
ing."2 

1  Sir  Rowland  Hill,  Bart.,  was  the  successful  candidate. 

2  It  is  said  that  Beardsworth  appeared  on  the  hustings 
with  a  bank  note,  of  large  amount,  pinned  on  his  breast. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  77 

It  is  a  great  accomplishment  to  be  able  to  tell 
a  story  well,  but  here  Mr.  Mytton  did  not  succeed 
In  the  first  place,  his  sense  of  hearing  was  deficient, 
a  great  disadvantage  in  society.  In  the  next, 
it  was  often  difficult  to  determine  whether  he 
were  in  earnest  or  in  jest,  so  fond  was  he  of  acting 
a  part  in  the  comedy  of  life.  Again — he  was 
very  epigrammatic  in  his  discourse,  his  sentences 
containing  few  words,  and  often  leaving  his  hearers 
to  guess  what  he  really  meant.  All,  however,  was 
in  the  essence  of  good  humour  ;  and  a  more  in- 
offensive companion,  in  the  strict  acceptation  of  that 
term,  no  man  with  his  flow  of  spirits  could  possibly 
be.  If  in  the  moment  of  convivial  mirth  he  let 
slip  a  word  which  he  feared  might  wound  the  feel- 
ings of  any  person,  he  instantly  made  reparation, 
nor  would  he  rest  satisfied  until  it  was  fully 
acknowledged  and  atoned  for.  It  is  warmth  of 
heart  like  this  that  distinguishes  the  friend  from 
the  companion  and  assimilates  friendship  to  love. 
As  to  his  politics,  although  he  once  was  in 
Parliament,  it  would  be  absurd  in  me  to  attempt 
to  decide  what  they  were,  for,  during  all  the  years 
I  was  acquainted  with  him,  I  never  once  heard  him 
give  an  opinion  upon  the  subject.  It  always  struck 
me  as  not  one  of  the  maddest  of  his  own  acts, 
but  certainly  of  his  friends  who  encouraged  him,  to 
spend  ten  thousand  pounds  to  obtain  a  seat  in  Par- 


78  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

Hament,  in  which  he  is  said  to  have  only  sat  half 
an  hour,  and  to  the  duties  of  which  he  was  by 
nature  and  habits  utterly  unfitted.  I  have  reason, 
however,  to  believe — for  I  never  interrogated  him 
— he  was  what  is  termed  a  church  and  king  man — 
in  other  words,  at  that  period,  a  tory.  But  on 
this  subject  he  was  also  full  of  his  jokes.  For 
example : — He  had  a  famous  race  horse  called 
Anti-radical ;  "  but,"  said  he  when  speaking  of 
him,  "  I  always  call  him  Radical  when  he  runs 
at  Manchester." 

Without  appearing  to  care  about  it,  or  ever  boast- 
ing of  his  success,  Mr.  Mytton  was  the  best  farmer 
in  his  part  of  the  county,  occupying  between  three 
and  four  hundred  acres  of  land.  Strange  to  say,  at 
one  of  the  Shropshire  Agricultural  meetings,  he 
gained  every  prize  for  clean  crops  of  grain,  save  one, 
a  field  of  barley,  his  claim  for  which  was  rejected 
from  a  cause  highly  typical  of  the  man.  //  <was 
found  to  contain  "  wild  oats  !  "  As  may  be  supposed, 
the  report  of  the  judge  was  the  subject  of  much 
merriment  to  the  company.  His  planting,  as  I  be- 
fore observed,  was  on  a  still  larger  scale,  his  object 
having  been  two-fold : — First,  to  replace  the  fine 
old  timber,  which  he  must  have  been  aware  would 
one  day  or  other,  fall  under  the  axe ;  and,  secondly, 
to  form  cover  for  the  game,  which,  of  course,  he  was 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  79 

resolved  should  exceed  that  of  any  other  man  in 
the  country,  and  no  doubt  it  did. 

As  a  general  sportsman  few  made  themselves 
more  conspicuous  than  Mr.  Mytton  did.  He  was 
many  years  a  master  of  fox-hounds,  (having  kept 
a  pack  of  harriers  from  his  boyhood,)  but  his  fox- 
hounds were  not  of  a  very  high  character.  In  fact 
to  produce  perfection  in  a  kennel  requires  qualities 
the  very  reverse  of  his — namely,  circumspection, 
perseverance,  and  patience.  The  establishment,  as 
might  be  expected  with  himself  at  the  head  of  it, 
was  on  a  fully  competent  scale  ;  consisting  of  two 
distinct  packs  of  hounds,  and  from  twenty-five  to 
twenty-eight  horses.  On  Mr.  Cresset  Pelham 
relinquishing  them,  in  18 17,  he  commenced  hunt- 
ing the  Shropshire  and  Shiffnal  (now  called 
Albrighton)  countries,  five  days  a  week  ;  and  con- 
tinued to  do  so,  with  a  fare  share  of  sport,  until 
the  close  of  the  season  1821  inclusive — making 
five  seasons  in  all.  His  huntsman  was  John 
Crags  (killed  by  a  fall  from  his  horse),  and 
assisted  by  Edward  Bates,  son  of  Sir  Richard 
Puleston's  huntsman  of  that  name,  and  Richard 
Jones,  both  very  excellent  horsemen  and  good 
men  in  their  places.  Mr.  Mytton  subsequently 
purchased  another  pack  of  fox-hounds,  from 
Mr.  Newman,  of  Hornchurch,   Essex,  which  he 


80  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

hunted  himself,  about  Halston,  for  several  successive 
'years,  making  up,  by  foxes  purchased  in  London, 
for  the  confined  country  to  which  he  was  restricted. 

As  a  horseman  I  need  say  little  of  Mr.  Mytton, 
his  merits  having  been  proclaimed  in  every  country 
in  which  he  had  hunted.  In  fact,  taking  him  at 
every  thing,  he  had  not  many  equals  and  very 
few  superiors  in  the  saddle,  for  he  could  ride  over 
a  course  as  well  as  over  a  country.  His  pro- 
digious strength  was  of  great  service  to  his  horses, 
in  proof  of  which  they  very  seldom  tired  with 
him ;  and,  making  allowance  for  the  seemingly 
impracticable  fences  he  would  ride  at,  he  got  but 
few  falls.  Considering  his  hard  usage  of  them 
also,  he  was  fortunate  in  his  stud,  several  of  his 
horses  lasting  many  seasons  ;  and  his  famous  little 
one-eyed  horse,  Baronet,  carried  him  nine  seasons 
with  hounds,  after  he  had  used  him  as  a  charger 
in  the  Hussars !  Having,  however,  mentioned 
this  gallant  animal  in  connection  with  his  hard 
riding  master  in  my  "  Crack  Riders  of  England," 
I  will  here  quote  what  I  there  said  of  both.  In 
speaking  of  the  master,  I  say,  "  There  x  is  no  man 
better  entitled  to  a  place  amongst  hard,  aye,  desperate 
riders  to  hounds  than  Mr.  Mytton  is,  and  a  welter 
weight  too.  But  how  is  it  that  he  can  come  under 
1  Vol.  VII.  page  89,  New  Sporting  Magazine. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  8x 

the  latter  denomination,  who,  ten  or  twelve  years 
back,  was  riding  amongst  the  gentleman  jockies 
under  twelve  stone  ?  The  question  is  best  answered 
by  the  fact  of  his  having  been,  by  the  aid  of  excess 
in  good  living,  upwards  of  fifteen,  with  his  saddle, 
for  some  years  past ;  and  I  think  Sir  Bellingham 
Graham  will  confirm  the  truth  of  my  assertion, 
that  he  was  nothing  short  of  that  weight,  on  his 
capital  Hit-or-Miss  mare,  when  he  so  distinguished 
himself  in  that  famous  run  with  his,  Sir  B.'s 
hounds,  of  an  hour  and  forty  minutes,  from  Babins- 
wood,  in  Shropshire.  But  it  has  not  been  in  this 
run,  nor  in  that  run,  in  one  country  or  in  another 
country,  that  Mytton  has  made  himself  signal  ; 
and  yet  I  might  hazard  an  imputation  on  my 
veracity  were  I  to  recount  all  the  extraordinary 
deeds  of  this  most  extraordinary  man,  in  various 
situations  with  hounds.  Indeed,  adding  the  hazards 
for  his  neck  that  he  has  encountered  in  the  field  to 
those  to  which  he  has  subjected  himself  elsewhere, 
the  most  extraordinary  thing  after  all  is,  that  he  is 
at  this  moment  in  existence.  However,  confining 
my  remarks  to  his  riding,  I  am  bound  to  pronounce 
him  one  of  the  most  daring  horsemen  that  ever 
came  under  my  eye ;  and  I  must  likewise  add, 
that,  all  things  considered,  he  has  had  fewer  falls, 
and  tired  fewer  horses  in  chase,  than  his  larking  and 
desperate  system  of  crossing  countries  would  warrant 
6 


82  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

the  expectation  of.  But  this  has  been  attribut- 
able to  the  immense  muscular  powers  of  the  man  ; 
to  a  sort  of  iron  grasp  by  which  he  holds  his 
horses  in  his  hand  at  all  times,  and  upon  all 
occasions,  which,  let  your  slack-rein  gentlemen 
say  what  they  may,  is  no  small  support  to  a  horse 
going  his  (Mytton's)  pace  over  a  country,  and 
particularly  over  the  uneven  surface,  the  deep 
ditches,  and  blind  grips  of  his  own  county,  Shrop- 
shire. Indeed,  when  I  last  met  him,  I  asked  him 
whether  it  had  ever  been  his  fate  so  to  tire  a 
hunter  as  not  to  be  able  to  ride  him  home,  when  he 
declared  he  never  recollected  having  done  so.  As 
to  the  height  and  width  of  fences  which  have 
been  ridden  over  by  him,  I  repeat  I  am  afraid 
to  recapitulate  them ;  but  I  have  very  respect- 
able attestation  to  my  having  once  measured  a 
brook x  that  he  rode  his  famous  one-eyed  horse, 
Baronet,  over,  in  cold  blood,  in  my  presence,  and 
found  it  to  exceed,  by  some  inches,  nine  yards  from 
hind-foot  to  hind-foot !  But  far  from  pleasing 
reflections  are  the  result  of  looking  back  upon  these 
brilliant  feats  of  horsemanship,  rarely  excelled  by 
any  one.  On  the  contrary,  we  cannot  help  lament- 
ing that  a  person  so  gifted  to  shine  in  the  field, 
as  Mr.  Mytton  proved  himself  to  be,  should  not 
have  taken  more  care  to  preserve,  unimpaired,  the 
1  The  Perry,  which    uns  through  the  Halston  estate. 


4 

V 


1 


^ 


I 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  83 

almost  unequalled  natural   powers  which   he   pos- 
sessed,— so  essential  to  the  figure  he  made." 

Nothing  need  be  better  than  the  shooting  at 
Halston  was — every  species  of  game  having 
abounded,  as  the  following  facts  will  prove.  The 
average  annual  slaughter  was — twelve  hundred  brace 
of  pheasants  ;  from  fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand 
hares  ;  partridges  out  of  number  !  There  was  also 
a  good  deal  of  wild  fowl,  and  very  excellent  fishing. 
Mr.  Mytton  always  made  a  point  of  killing  fifty 
brace  of  partridges  the  first  day  of  the  season  with 
his  own  gun ;  and  I  was  once  at  Halston  when  he 
killed  that  number  further  on  in  the  year.  A  neigh- 
bouring gentleman  had  betted  him  fifty  guineas  against 
the  performance  ;  but  paid  forfeit  over  night.  This, 
however,  did  not  satisfy  the  Squire.  His  fame  as  a 
shot  was  called  in  question,  so  he  went  forth  with  his 
keepers  and  performed  the  task  in  about  six  hours ! 

Barring  Scotland,  few  gentlemen  had  better 
moors  than  Mr.  Mytton  had ;  and  when  I  say  that 
the  annual  income  of  his  Merionethshire  estate, 
on  which  they  were,  was  ^*8oo,  and  that  it  con- 
sisted of  little  less  than  sheep  walk,  its  great 
extent  may  be  imagined,  and  consequently  the 
extent  of  the  moors.  Thirty  brace  of  grouse, 
was    the    average    daily   amount    bagged    during 


S4  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

his  annual  visit  to  Mowddy, — or  Mouthy,  as  it  is 
pronounced, — where  he  had  comfortable  accom- 
modations for  himself  and  three  or  four  friends. 
The  right  of  Free  Warren  likewise  gave  him  liberty 
over  his  neighbours'  property,  to  a  certain  extent, 
and  Mowddy  itself  is  one  of  the  few  manors  to 
be  found  in  North  Wales.  The  fishing  here  is 
likewise  of  the  first  description,  and  the  mountain 
scenery  not  to  be  surpassed  in  the  Principality. 
But,  alas  !  although  the  mountains  will  stand  fast  till 
time  shall  be  no  more,  this  ancient  patrimony  has 
passed  into  other  hands.  It  is  to  be  hoped, 
however,  that  one  day  or  another  it  may  be 
redeemed. 

But  to  return  for  a  moment  to  Halston,  and  the 
feats  of  the  trigger  of  the  late  owner  of  it  and  his 
friends.  Amongst  them,  the  two  following  may 
not  very  easily  be  exceeded.  His  brother-in-law, 
Mr.  Walter  Giffard,  of  Chillington,  Staffordshire, 
now  master  of  the  Albrighton  fox-hounds,  and 
himself,  took  the  field  at  eleven  o'clock  in  the 
forenoon  of  a  short  and  dirty  winter's  day,  and 
between  that  hour  and  the  dinner  hour  they  bagged 
six  hundred  head  of  game  from  their  own  guns ! 
On  another  occasion,  an  intimate  friend  of  his 
and  mine,  together  with  himself,  killed  a  head  of 
game  every  three  minutes  for  five  successive  hours  !      I 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  85 

state  this  "in  verbo  sacerdotis"  so  that  the  fact 
may  be  relied  upon,  but  I  withhold  the  reverend 
slaughterer's  name. 

It  always  appeared  to  me,  however,  that  racing 
was  more  Mr.  Mytton's  passion  than  either  shoot- 
ing or  hunting — and  could  he  have  been  divested  of 
that  destroying  spirit  which  accompanied  him,  he 
might  have  cut  a  very  conspicuous  figure  on  what 
may  be  called  the  country  turf.  He  had  the 
courage  to  purchase  good  horses, — for  example,  he 
gave  three  thousand  guineas  for  Longwaist, — and 
his  never  failing  memory  enabled  him  to  measure 
their  ability  by  that  of  others  in  a  manner 
that  turned  to  his  account.  Previously,  indeed, 
to  the  loss  of  his  trainer  and  rider,  William 
Dunn,  who  was  killed  by  a  fall  in  riding  one  of  his 
horses  at  Chester,  he  had  his  full  share  of  success ; 
but  it  appeared  to  forsake  him  gradually  after 
that  period.  The  fact  was,  Dunn  was  not  only 
an  excellent  trainer  and  rider,  but  he  had  some 
power  over  his  master  to  restrain  his  running 
his  horses  to  a  stand-still,  which  he  would  do  if 
left  to  his  own  discretion,  and  more  for  the 
sake  of  showing  sport  than  from  desire  to 
win  money.  The  sideboard  at  Halston  exhibited 
thirteen  gold  cups,  besides  two  silver  ones,  several 
of  which    were   the   trophies    of   one    horse — the 


86  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

celebrated  Euphrates,  who,  like  one  of  the  old 
sort,  now  become  very  scarce,  continued  running 
and  winning  to  his  thirteenth  year !  The  expenses 
of  his  stud,  however,  must  have  been  enormous,  not 
only  by  consequence  of  its  number,  but  his  subscrip- 
tions to  stakes  amounted  to  an  immense  annual  sum. 
He  seldom  refused  to  subscribe  to  any  that  were 
put  before  him,  and  the  name  of  "John  Mytton  " 
often  appeared  as  many  as  six  times  to  the  same. 
Of  the  science  of  breeding  race  horses  he  knew 
little  or  nothing  ;  and  the  richness  of  the  land  at 
Halston  proved  a  fatal  obstacle  to  success. 

His  good  nature  and  kind  heartedness  accom- 
panied him  everywhere,  and  particularly  to  the 
race-courses.  He  often  started  his  horses  without 
a  prospect  of  their  winning,  for  the  purpose  of 
affording  sport — overruling  the  objections  of  his 
trainer,  by  saying — "  'Tis  a  pity  the  country 
people  should  come  so  far  from  home  and  not 
have  some  fun."  *  In  fact,  that  class  of  persons 
always  built  on  diversion  when  "  Squire  Mytton's  " 
horses  were  on  the  turf,  and  consequently,  with 
them,  the  popularity  of  their  owner  had  no  bounds. 

1  Some  years  since,  at  Chester,  he  actually  went  to  his 
stable  and  fetched  a  horse  down  to  the  course  himself, 
which  his  trainer  had  not  prepared  to  run,  and,  mount- 
ing his  jockey  at  the  post,  won  the  prize  contended  for. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  87 

"  Which  is  he\"  they  would  cry  out  to  one  of 
their  friends  that  knew  him.  "  That's  he — that's 
Mytton"  the  friend  would  reply.  "Dang  it" — 
you  would  hear  a  Staffordshire  potter  or  a  Walsall 
nailer  exclaim — "  ha  looks  loike  agood'un  ;  they  tells 
me  he  can  fo'ight  nation  well." 

Before  he  became  too  heavy,  my  friend  occa- 
sionally rode  among  the  gentlemen  jockies l  of  the 
day ;  and  here  "  John  Mytton  "  appeared  again,  for 
strange  to  say,  he  did  not  like  to  see  an  intimate 
friend  win,  although  he  himself  could  not  win. 
I  had  a  rare  specimen  of  this  unaccountable  frolic 
in  my  own  person  once,  when  riding  in  the  same 
race  with  him  at  Lichfield.  He  knew  he  himself 
had  no  chance  to  win,  but  was  determined  I  should 
not ;  and,  by  making  several  runs  at  my  horse,  caused 
him  to  break  away  with  me  in  the  race,  and  the 
little  chance  I  had  was  lost  by  it.  I  say  "  the  little 
chance,"  because,  although  I  defeated  seven  of  eight 
horses  that  started  against  me,  by  at  least  twenty 
lengths,  the  ninth  came  up  and  won  cleverly  at  the 
last.  This  proved  to  be  the  famous  Habberley, 
who  was  instantly  purchased  by  Mr.  Mytton,  for 
two  hundred  guineas,  but  who  had  never  started 
or    been    heard    of    before   that    day.       He   was 

1  Mr.  Mytton's  colours  were  green  and  white  with  a 
black  cap. 


88  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

called  and  entered  as  a  cocktail,  but,  as  his  subse- 
quent running  proved,  Eclipse  was  not  more 
thorough-bred  than  he  was ;  and  no  doubt  the 
original  owners  of  him  knew  it. 

Let  us  here  take  a  cursory  review  of  his  start 
and  progress  on  the  turf.  It  appears  that  he 
entered  upon  its  fascinations  at  the  earliest  pos- 
sible opportunity — viz.,  on  attaining  his  majority,  in 
1817.  In  the  book  calendar  of  that  year  there 
are  three  horses  attached  to  the  name  of  "John 
Mytton,  Esq.,"  the  names  of  two  of  which, 
"Hazard"  and  "Neck  or  Nothing,"  are  highly 
characteristic  of  the  man,  and  especially  so,  at  the 
commencement  of  his  perilous  career  on  this  slippery 
ground. 

He  made  his  debut  at  Oswestry  on  the  23rd  of 
September,  of  the  said  year,  on  which  day  both 
the  above  named  horses  ran  (Neck  or  Nothing 
breaking  down)  ;  also  a  third,  called  Langolee,  an 
Irish  horse,  purchased  by  him  when  in  France,  and 
which  lasted  him  many  years  as  a  whipper-in's 
horse,  and  also  was  used  in  the  stud,  to  get  hunters. 

In  the  following  year,  18 18,  his  name  appears  in 
the  Calendar  as  owner  of  the  following  horses, 
Langolee,  Leopold,  Pranks,  and  Jupiter. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  89 

Langolee  walked  over  for  a  hunter  stakes 
and  beat  Mr.  Jones's  Kill  Devil  in  a  match  at 
Shrewsbury,  in  September,  which  was  his  blooding 
of  success  on  the  turf.  This  year  his  horses 
ran  at  Oswestry  (where  "Captain  Mytton " 
gave  ^50  to  be  run  for  by  members  of  the 
Oswestry  Yeomanry  Cavalry),  at  Wrexham, 
Holywell  Hunt,  and  Tarporley  Hunt,  over  the 
new  course  on  Delamere  Forest. 

In  1 8 19  he  had  Jupiter,  Sybil,  Tamborine  by 
Cervantes,  Dot-and-go-one,  Tattoo,  Anti- Radical, 
Fox-Huntress  by  Sultan,  and  Single-peeper,  in  his 
racing  stable ;  during  which  year,  however,  he 
experienced  the  want  of  success  peculiar  to  most 
young  turfites. 

In  1820  his  string  of  horses  was  consider- 
ably lengthened.  In  addition  to  Anti-Radical 
and  Leopold,  he  had  gr.  f.  by  Fitzjames, 
Mandeville,  Theodore  Majocchi  (late  Handel), 
Halston  by  Langton,  Claudius,  Chance,  The  Pol- 
acca,  George  the  Third,  Brunette,  Paul  Potter, 
and  Victorine. 

Anti-Radical  won  him  some  good  stakes  at 
Chester,  Warwick,  Lichfield,  Oswestry,  Tarpor- 
ley, and  the  gold  cup  at  Manchester. 


9o  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

Mandeville  won  the  gold  cup  at  Nantwich  and 
Nottingham,  also  100  gs.  at  Manchester. 

Halston  won  four  stakes,  value  ^200. 

1 82 1.  Victorine,  b.  c.  by  Aladdin,  Paul 
Potter,  The  Chancellor,  Halston,  Doctor,  Anti- 
Radical,  The  Ruler,  Vade  -  mecum,  George 
the  Third,  Shrewsbury,  Hudibras,  Queen 
Caroline,  Habberley,  Single-peeper,  Mandeville, 
Claudius,  Theodore  Majocchi  were  in  his  racing 
stable. 

Halston  won  the  gold  cup  at  Nottingham,  also 
stakes  at  Worcester  and  Chester,  value  135  gs. 

Anti- Radical  again  carried  off  the  gold  cup 
at  Manchester,  also  the  Palatine  stakes  and 
the  gold  cup  at  Burton,  and  Habberley,  then 
called  Acastus,  said  to  be  by  Shuttlecock 
dam  by  Gayman,  gleaned  some  good  things 
at  the  Anson  Hunt,  Manchester,  Hereford,  and 
Shrewsbury. 

Mandeville  also  won  four  times,  the  stakes 
amounting  to  about  200  gs. 

Claudius  won  the  gold  cup  at  Cheltenham. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  91 

1822.  He  had  Claudius,  Mallet,  Habberley, 
Nettle,  The  Ruler,  Enterprise,  Queen  Caroline, 
Halston,  Mandeville,  Theodore  Majocchi,  Anti- 
Radical,  Circe,  Vade-mecum,  Banker,  two  br.  c.'s 
by  Filho  da  Puta,  Jovial,  ch.  m.  by  Milo,  ch.  g. 
by  Young  Alexander,  Paradigm. 

Habberley  won  the  Billesden  Coplow  stakes  at 
Croxton-park,  the  Half-bred  stakes  at  Chester  and 
Manchester,  40  gs.  at  Shrewsbury,  and  80  gs.  at 
Oswestry. 

The  Ruler,  by  Rubens,  won  the  Sherwood 
stakes  at  Nottingham  and  ^60  at  Manchester. 
He  was  induced,  by  a  flattering  account  given  him 
by  the  owner,  of  a  trial,  to  give  five  hundred 
guineas  for  this  colt  at  two  years  old,  worth  about 
as  many  shillings. 

Halston  started  ten  times  and  only  won  ^50 
at  Oswestry.  Mandeville  won  65  gs.  at 
Nantwich.  Anti- Radical  60  gs.  at  Cheltenham. 
Banker,  by  Smolensko,  after  he  became  Mr. 
Mytton's  property  (having  been  purchased  this 
year  of  Mr.  Charlton,  with  whom  he  had  won  the 
cup  at  Winchester),  won  the  cup  at  Abingdon 
and  70  gs.  at  Shrewsbury.  One  of  the  Filho 
colts  won   75  gs.    at    Lichfield.     Jovial,  by  Go- 


92  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

lumpus,  won  the  Cocked  Hat  stakes  at  Shrewsbury. 
The  ch.  mare,  by  Milo,  the  silver  cup  at  Oswestry. 
The  gelding,  by  Young  Alexander,  the  Cocked 
Hat  stakes  at  Oswestry.  And  Paradigm,  by 
Partisan,  the  Wellington  stakes  at  Basingstoke. 

1823.  We  find  Habberley,  Banker,  Enterprise, 
Whittington,  Euphrates  (purchased  of  Mr.  J. 
Dilly),  Libertine,  Ostrich,  Clansman,  Paradigm, 
Anti- Radical,  br.  c.  by  Bustard,  Sir  William 
(purchased  of  Mr.  Beardsworth ) ,  Cae  Avon,  The 
Devil,  placed  after  his  name. 

Habberley  won  the  Bosworth  stakes  at 
the  Anson  Hunt  at  Lichfield.  Banker  won 
j£6o  at  Buxton.  Whittington,  by  Filho, 
won  ^235  at  Chester,  Shrewsbury,  Walsall, 
and  Stafford.  Euphrates,  then  seven  years 
old,  by  Quiz,  won  the  King's  plate  at  Chester 
and  the  gold  cup  at  Worcester.  Ostrich,  by 
Bustard  (son  of  Castrel),  won  183  gs.  in  two 
sums  at  Knutsford  and  Warwick ;  and  the  colt 
by  Bustard  won  £<)0  in  two  sums  at  Oswestry  and 
Holywell. 

1824.  He  had  Habberley,  Euphrates,  Ostrich, 
Oswestry,  Berghill,  Comte  d'Artois,  Whittington, 
and  Ludford. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  93 

Euphrates  won  the  gold  cups  at  Cheltenham  and 
Lichfield,  and  the  Oxfordshire  stakes  at  Oxford. 

Oswestry,  by  Filho,  won  _^*ioo  at  the  Pottery, 
j£*75  at  Buxton,  and  the  Mostyn  and  the  Halkin 
stakes  at  Holywell.  Berghill,  by  Bustard,  won 
the  Ludford  stakes  and  £i$o  in  three  sums 
at  Ludlow,  Shrewsbury,  and  Wrexham.  Comte 
d'Artois,  by  Bourbon,  won  £70  and  the  gold  cup 
at  Worcester,  the  gold  cup  at  Hereford,  and  the 
Hawarden-castle  stakes  at  Holywell.  Whittington 
won  the  gold  cup  at  Oswestry,  the  gold  cup  at 
Wrexham,  another  at  Stafford,  and  ^345  in 
different  sums ;  while  Ludford,  by  Manfred,  won 
^50  at  Holywell. 

1825.   Elizabeth,  Cara  Sposa  (late  Miss  Fylde 
ner),  Ludford,  Oswestry,  Comte  d'Artois,  Louisa, 
b.  c.  by  Amadis,  Euphrates,  Comrade,  b.  f.  by  Blu- 
cher,  b.  f.  by  Cannon  Ball,  b.  f.  by  Ambo,  Flexible. 

Ludford  won  100  gs.  at  Oswestry  and 
Holywell.  Oswestry  won  the  gold  cup  at 
Shrewsbury  and  ^*55  at  Burton.  Comte 
d'Artois  ^*6o  at  Shrewsbury.  Louisa,  by  Or- 
ville,  ^225  at  Chester,  70  gs.  at  Nottingham,  and 
100  gs.  at  Derby.  Euphrates  won  the  gold  cups 
at  Newton,  Worcester,  Lichfield,  Wolverhampton, 


94  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

and  Oswestry,  also  ^50  at  the  latter  place. 
Comrade,  by  Partisan,  won  60  gs.  at  the  Pottery. 
The  Blucher  filly  ^225  at  Holywell  and  ^50  at 
Wenlock.  The  Cannon  Ball  filly  ^50  at 
Oswestry.  Flexible,  by  Whalebone,  £120  at 
Shrewsbury,  ^50  at  Oswestry,  £2  10  at  Holywell ; 
a  pretty  good  year's  work. 

1826.  Flexible,  Whittington,  Fisherman,  Eu- 
phrates, Balloon,  Longwaist,  Bowsprit,  Louisa, 
Ashbourn,  ch.  c.  by  Sam,  b.  c.  by  Amadis, 
Harriette  Wilson,  Lark,  and  Comrade. 

Flexible  won  the  Darlington  cup  at  Wolver- 
hampton and  £70  at  Cheltenham.  Whittington 
£60  at  Chester.  Euphrates  carried  off  the  gold 
cup  at  Lichfield,  the  gold  cup  and^o  at  Oswestry, 
the  King's  plate  and  ^70  at  Chester.  Longwaist, 
by  Whalebone,  won  the  gold  cups  at  Newton, 
Buxton,  Worcester,  and  Warwick,  also  ^40  at 
Chester.  Bowsprit,  by  Rainbow,  won  £50  at 
Ludlow.  Ashbourn,  by  Cheshire  Cheese,  ^*6o 
at  Oswestry.  Colt  by  Amadis,  £2^0  at  Notting- 
ham ;  and  Harriette  Wilson,  by  Manfred,  ^40  at 
Shrewsbury. 

1827.  Fisherman,  Flexible,  Lechmcre,  Elles- 
mere,  Halston,  Euphrates,  Mexican,  Lark. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  95 

Ellesmere,  by  Filho,  is  the  first  winner  of  the 
above  lot,  viz.  of  ^125  at  Nottingham.  Halston 
won  ^275  at  Chester,  ^175  at  Ludlow,  and  the 
Chillington  stakes  at  Wolverhampton.  Euphrates 
won  the  gold  cup  and  ^50  at  Oswestry,  and  the 
King's  plate  at  Lichfield.  Lark,  by  Rubens,  ^55 
at  Nottingham. 

1828.  Spruce,  Hedgford,  Euphrates,  Halston, 
b.  c.  by  Master  Henry,  The  Crofts,  br.  f.  by 
Filho. 

Spruce,  by  Skim,  won  ^100  at  the  Anson  Hunt. 
Hedgford,  by  Filho  or  Magistrate,  the  cup  and  £$0 
at  Chester  and^/^o  at  Nottingham.  Euphrates  won 
the  cups  at  Ludlow,  Worcester,  Oswestry,  and 
Wrexham,  also  the  King's  plate  at  Chester. 
Halston,  the  Palatine  stakes  at  Chester,  100  gs.  at 
Newton,  75  gs.  at  Worcester,  200  gs.  at  Burton, 
the  Avon  stakes  at  Warwick,  155  gs.  at  Oswestry, 
the  Taffy  and  Pengwern  stakes  at  Holywell. 

1829.  The  numbers  were  considerably  reduced. 
Brown  filly  by  Filho,  The  Crofts,  Halston, 
Hedgford  and  Euphrates,  being  the  whole  of  the 
horses  he  had  in  training. 

The  Crofts,  by  Whalebone,  won  ^125  at  Oswestry 


96  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

and  ^50  at  Wrexham.  Halston,  the  Tradesmen's 
cup  at  Chester,  the  cup  at  Knutsford,  ^350, 
the  Pengwern  stakes,  and  ^*i  1 5  at  Holywell. 
Hedgford,  ^63  at  Chester.  Euphrates,  the  gold 
cups  at  Ludlow  and  Wolverhampton  and  the  King's 
plate  at  Lichfield. 

1830.  This  year  brings  us  to  a  close,  Halston 
and  Hedgford  being  the  only  race  horses  he  had 
left.  The  former  winning  ^50  at  Holywell,  and 
the  latter  the  Cheshire  stakes  at  Chester,  ^1 10  at 
Newcastle,  and  £$0  at  Wrexham. 

I  find  I  must  here  retrace  my  steps  a  little — 
and  this  for  two  reasons.  First,  I  shall  follow  the 
good  example  set  by  himself  in  bearing  testimony 
to  the  worth  of  a  good  servant ;  and  secondly, 
shall  transcribe  a  letter  of  his  own,  which  sets 
forth  the  writer  of  it  in  his  true  character.  It 
will  be  recollected  I  asserted  that  Mr.  Mytton's 
success  on  the  turf  somewhat  declined  after  the 
death  of  his  trainer  and  rider,  William  Dunn. 
Let  it  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  I  intend 
in  the  least  degree  to  disparage  the  good  conduct 
or  abilities  of  his  subsequent  trainers  or  riders, 
but  to  impute  it  to  that  "  tide,"  as  Shakespeare 
calls  it,  in  every  man's  affairs,  wherein  fortune  has  a 
share,  which,  despite  of  every  thing  and  every  body, 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  97 

will  now  and  then  set  against  him.  I  have  good 
reason  to  believe  that  Mr.  William  Dilly  and  my 
old  servant,  Thomas  Horsley,  did  all  that  could  be 
done  for  Mr.  Mytton  as  trainers  of  his  horses  ;  and 
the  fair  ability  of  his  jockey,  Whitehouse,  is  very 
generally  acknowledged.  His  master's  opinion  of 
him,  however,  is  here  unhesitatedly  given  in  one 
of  the  prettiest  letters — if  I  may  use  such  an  epithet 
— that  I  ever  perused. 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Salopian  Journal. 
"Sir, 
"  Having  lately  heard  it  asserted,  as  the  general 
opinion,  that  the  defeat  of  my  celebrated  horse, 
Longwaist,  may  be  attributed  to  the  dishonesty 
of  his  rider,  I  feel  called  upon,  as  his  owner,  to 
express  my  most  firm  and  unshaken  confidence 
in  his  integrity,  till  now  unimpeached,  and  in  truth 
unimpeachable. 

"  Nothing  but  anxiety  to  rescue  the  fame  and 
character  of  a  highly  valued  servant,  and  deservedly 
admired  rider,  would  induce  me  to  trespass  on  your 
valuable  columns  ;  but  feeling  that  the  character  of 
Whitehouse  is  as  unspotted,  and  as  valuable  to 
himself  as  that  of  the  highest  of  our  nobles  is  to 
him,  I  cannot  resist  making  my  confidence  in  his 
worth  and  integrity  thus  public  : — 
7 


98  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

'Who   steals   my   purse   steals    trash;    'tis    something, 
nothing  ; 
Twas  mine,  'tis  his,  and  has  been  slave  to  thousands: 
But  he  that  filches  from  me  my  good  name, 
Robs  me  of  that  which  not  enriches  him, 
But  makes  me  poor  indeed.' 

"  I  am,  Sir, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  John  Mytton.1 
"  Halston." 

As  a  pendant  to  the  above  I  may  here  introduce 
the  following  tickler  that  he  wrote  to  the  Editor  of  the 
Old  Sporting  Magazine  in  the  spring  of  183 1,  in 
answer  to  some  observations  that  had  been  made 
about  Mr.  Beardsworth  and  the  horse  Birmingham. 

"GUY  STAKES  AT  WARWICK. 
"  Sir, 
"  If  there  is  one  thing  more  absolutely  requisite  than 
another  in  a  letter  which  is  intended  for  the  public 

1  The  following  is  a  copy  of  his  Autograph — strongly 
indicative  of  the  rapidity  with  which  he  used  his  pen  on 
all  common  occasions. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  99 

eye,  it  is  accuracy ;  or,  to  speak  more  plainly, 
Truth — a  qualification  that  your  Correspondent, 
The  Young  Forester,  has  in  your  Magazine 
of  this  month  (February)  unhappily  over- 
looked. 

"  In  page  247,  he  says,  '  The  Stake  at  War- 
wick has  been  awarded  to  the  owner  of  Cetus, 
who  was  second,  in  consequence  of  the  present 
owner  of  Birmingham  having  refused  to  pay 
some  paltry  ^25  forfeit  for  a  stake  at  Win- 
chester, where  the  horse  was  engaged  in  the 
name  of  the  person  whom  Mr.  Beardsworth 
bought  him  of.' — This  is  notoriously  untrue ; 
and,  by  the  manner  in  which  the  writer  speaks  of 
the  transaction  altogether,  it  is  to  be  feared  it  is 
wilfully  so. 

"  The  next  paragraph  I  apprehend  too  is 
incorrect ;  but  which  I  will  not  speak  so 
positively  about,  because  I  know  but  little  of 
racing,  and  therefore  am  unwilling  to  compete 
with  so  precocious  a  youth  as  this  appears 
to  be. 

"  He  says,  '  It  has  long  been  one  of  the  best  ac- 
knowledged rules  of  racing,  that  no  horse  is  entitled 
to  be  a  winner  until  all  the  arrears  due  for  such  animal 


ioo  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

have  been  paid  up.' — Is  he  sure  of  that  ? — 
Where  is  the  rule  to  be  found  ?  Has  he  not 
made  a  mistake  ?  and  instead  of  the  words 
'to  be  a  winner,'  should  he  not  have  said 
*  to  start '  ? — This  talented  gentleman  may  not 
see  the  difference.  —  Great  wits,  they  say, 
have  short  memories  —  perhaps  they  are  short- 
sighted too ! — In  my  humble  judgment,  there  is 
a  great  deal  of  difference.  By  making  use  of  the 
word  '  start,'  you  afford  the  owner  an  opportunity 
of  paying  the  stake  in  arrears  if  applied  for,  instead 
of  letting  the  onus  hang  over  his  head  till  he  has 
defeated  his  antagonists. 

"And  now  I  would  ask,  did  Sir  Mark  Wood 
'  most  honourably '  make  any  application  to  the 
Stewards  or  Clerk  of  the  Course  before  Birming- 
ham started  at  Warwick  for  the  paltry  ^25 
forfeit  at  Winchester?  The  Young  Forester 
answers  this  question  partly,  asserting,  '  he 
apprized  both  trainer  and  master,  previously  to 
the  race,  of  the  objection  he  had  to  make.'  Now 
if  he  had  done  so,  I  should  say  they  (that  is,  the 
trainer  and  master)  were  not  the  proper  persons  to 
apprise.  The  Stewards  (or  at  all  events  the  Clerk 
of  the  Course)  were  the  proper  persons ;  but,  un- 
fortunately for  The  Young  Forester's  veracity,  here 
is  another  untruth  :   Sir  Mark  Wood  did  not  '  most 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  101 

honourably'  apprize  Mr.  Beardsworth  (the  owner), 
previously  to  the  race,  of  the  objection  he  had  to 
make. 

"  '  Save  me  from  my  friends,'  he  says,  '  has  been 
the  cry  through  many  ages : '  but,  instead  of  Mr. 
Beardsworth  echoing  it,  I  guess  the  Jockey  Club 
and  Sir  Mark  Wood  are  more  likely  to  apply  it  to 
this  doughty  genius,  and  conjure  him,  if  he  is 
determined  to  attempt  to  take  their  part,  that  he 
will  assert  only  that  which  is  true. 

"  I  am,  Sir,  your  humble  servant, 

"John  Mytton. 

"  Halston,  Feb.  19,  1831." 

A  summary  of  Mr.  Mytton's  actual  racing 
career  may  be  comprised  in  a  few  words.  He 
had  too  many  horses  in  the  first  place,  and  too 
many  of  them  not  good  enough  to  pay  their  way. 
It  is  evident  he  was  anxious  to  have  good  ones 
in  his  stables  by  the  prices  he  gave ;  but  he  bought 
several,  of  that  sort,  after  their  day  was  gone  by 
—  for  example  Count  d'Artois,  Banker,  Long- 
waist,  &c.  &c.  He  had  however  several  good 
winners  —  old  Euphrates  at  their  head ;  and 
Whittington,  Oswestry,  and  Halston  were  esteemed 


102  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

very  "  smart "  horses  in  the  racing  world. 
Indeed  it  is  believed,  that,  in  some  hands,  they 
would  have  been  trump  cards.  As  for  himself, 
as  a  racing  man,  he  was  too  severe  upon  his  horses  ; 
they  rarely  came  out  fresh,  after  Chester  and  one 
or  two  other  places ;  and  therefore,  this  fact 
admitted,  he  had,  I  think  as  much  success  as  he 
could  have  expected.  He  seldom  backed  his 
horses  to  any  serious  amount ;  generally  not  at  all. 

His  stables  were,  as  has  been  before  stated, 
upon  Delamere  Forest,  in  Cheshire,  and  he  had 
at  different  times  for  training  grooms  —  William 
Dunn  (also  his  rider  who  was  killed)  ;  Maurice 
Jones,  one  of  the  old  sort ;  William  Dilly,  and 
Thomas  Horsley.  Jones  had  always  one  answer 
to  his  master's  question — "  Shall  we  win  this  race, 
Maurice  ?  "  "  Well  I  can't  say,  indeed,  sir  ;  but 
/  think  <we  shall  be  nigh  handy,  please  God."  His 
home  stud  -  groom,  Tinkler,  was  also  one  of  the 
old  sort — a  careful  nurser  of  young  racing  stock, 
but  too  fond  of  green  meat  to  contend  with 
young  horses  of  the  present  day.  Mr.  Mytton 
never  bred  a  good  race-horse. 

This  anecdote  of  Maurice  Jones  reminds  me  of  an- 
other. I  was  once  on  a  visit  to  the  late  Mr.  Bayzand 
of  sporting  notoriety,  when  he  received  a  letter,  en- 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  103 

closing  a  bill  of  expenses  for  training,  from  **  old 
Sadler "  as  he  was  called,  father  to  the  present 
Isaac.  It  contained  the  following  postscript. — "  I 
have  had  a  terrible  summer  of  it ;  won  nothing  ;  but 
by  the  blessing  of  God,  hope  to  do  better  next  year." 

When  speaking  of  Mr.  Mytton's  conduct 
towards  his  two  wives,  a  delicate  hand  is  required ; 
for  the  mind  naturally  revolts  from  retracing, 
circumstantially,  any  thing  intimately  connected 
with  the  sacred  compact  between  man  and  wife ; 
but — as  the  reader  will  perceive — I  should  fail 
in  my  object,  in  writing  this  memoir  of  my 
departed  friend,  if  I  shrank  from  the  arduous 
and  painful  task.  I  need  no  justification  for  the 
performance  of  it ;  I  find  it,  first,  in  the  fact  of 
the  notoriety  given  through  the  public  journals, 
to  the  proceedings  in  Chancery,  on  the  final  separ- 
ation of  the  late  Mr.  Mytton  from  that  amiable 
lady  who  is  now  his  widow ;  and,  secondly,  in 
numerous  misrepresentations  that  have  gone  forth 
to  the  world,  which,  to  the  utmost  of  my  ability, 
I  shall  endeavour  to  clear  up.  I  wish,  however, 
for  one  sip  of  Lethe  now,  and  that  my  readers 
could  partake  with  me  of  the  same  cup ;  for,  as  in 
criminal  law,  good  character  bears  no  weight  against 
positive  evidence — at  least,  as  regards  the  verdict 
returned — so  I  much  fear  the  numerous  virtues  of 


104  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

my  old  friend  will  not  here  more  than  balance  the 
account,  unless  large  credit  be  given  him  on  one 
score.  The  follies  of  mankind  are  familiar  to 
our  view,  and  we  can  always  find  an  excuse  for 
them ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  account  for  that  evil 
principle  which  prompts  a  man  to  give  pain  to  a 
woman  whom  in  his  heart  he  loves,  and  whom  he 
has  every  earthly  reason  to  love.  "  Sic  visum  est 
diis,"  'tis  the  will  of  the  gods,  said  the  ancients — 
a  poor  excuse,  if  not  a  little  blasphemous ;  and  I 
should  rather  lay  it  to  poor  human  nature,  who 
sometimes  exhibits  herself  in  most  mysterious 
guises,  as  was  the  case  here,  accompanied  by 
errors  and  failings  over  which  —  as  we  are  not 
permitted  to  command  oblivion  —  delicacy  and 
humanity  would  fain  draw  the  veil. 

But  this  painful  part  of  my  subject — if  my  end  is 
to  be  attained — will  not  admit  of  concealment, 
and  the  evil  must  at  once  be  laid  bare  to  our 
view.  I  reluctantly  admit,  that  Mr.  Mytton's 
conduct  in  the  marriage  state  is  in  great  part 
indefensible,  and  can  only  be  palliated  by  a  due 
allowance,  which  must  not  be  denied  him,  for  that 
sort  of  insane  delirium  under  which  he  so  frequently 
laboured — no  matter  from  what  cause  —  and  to 
which  so  many  of  his  otherwise  unaccountable  acts 
— not  the  acts  of  John  Mytton,  per  se — can  alone 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  105 

be  placed.  Delusion  is  the  true  character  of 
insanity ;  and  when  I  say  that  great  part  of  his 
unjustifiable,  and,  by  the  world,  I  fear,  hitherto 
unpardoned,  treatment  of  two  of  the  most  exemplary 
and  virtuous  women  in  existence,  was  jealousy, 
nothing  more  need  be  said  to  establish  this 
point.  What  says  the  poet  ?  and  beautifully  has 
he  said  it, 

"  It  is  jealousy's  peculiar  nature 
To  swell  small  things  to  great ;  nay  out  of  nought 
To  conjure  much  ;  and  then  to  lose  it's  reason 
Amid  the  hideous  phantoms  it  has  formed. 

In  the  case  before  us,  not  only  the  groundlessness, 
but  the  unreasonableness  of  his  suspicions  were 
such  as  could  have  emanated  from  no  sound  mind, 
which  never  dreams  of  effects  unconnected  with 
a  cause ;  and  this  is  nearly  the  sole  mitigation 
I  have  to  offer  for  one  of  the  greatest  blemishes 
human  nature  can  sustain.  On  this  point  he  was 
mad ;  on  others,  only  eccentric  ;  but  —  as  has 
been  falsely  said  of  wit — "thin  partitions  do 
their  bounds  divide."  The  fate  of  each  of  these 
ladies,  however,  has  been  a  hard  one.  The  one 
dropped  into  an  early  grave ;  the  other  would 
have  been  torn  from  him  by  her  friends,  had  she 
not  made  up  her  mind  to  abandon  him,  lest,  like 


106  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

Semele   in   Jupiter's,   she    might    have   found  her 
death  in  his  embraces.1 


But,  setting  aside  this  monomaniasm,  what  further 
extenuation  have  I  to  offer  ?  I  answer — as  regards 
his  second  lady — none,  save  madness.  His  first 
and  himself  were  not  well  assorted.  She  had  been 
nursed  on  the  lap  of  refinement  and  fashion,  to  which 
her  betrothed  was  a  stranger,  and  was  by  consequence 
ill  calculated  to  be  the  wife  of  a  rough  country  squire, 
who  had  never  been  at  Almack's  in  his  life,  and  who 
had  something  like  a  sovereign  contempt  for  all  such 
exclusive  association.  Nor  was  this  all — and  should 
any  young  female's  eye  rest  for  a  moment  on  this 
page,  let  it  well  observe,  that  it  may  well  mark,  one 

1  So  tender  is  woman's  fame,  that  the  very  breath  of 
calumny  will  taint  it.  It  behoves  me  then  to  say, 
that,  in  their  situation  as  wives,  two  more  correct  in 
their  conduct  might  have  been  searched  for  in  vain, 
than  the  ladies  I  am  now  alluding  to.  Any  man  but 
Mr.  Mytton  would  have  been  proud  of  exhibiting 
them  in  public,  but  had  they  lived  in  the  days  of 
Pericles,  or  even  been  the  wives  of  the  Great  Mogul, 
they  could  scarcely  have  been  more  secluded  than  they 
were  at  Halston.  Not  even  a  race  ball  would  he  let 
them  be  present  at,  for  some  years  of  his  life!  To 
what  motive  but  jealousy,  or,  what  is  worse,  suspicion, 
could  such  conduct  be  attributed.  In  justice  to  the  deceased 
husband,  however,  I  must  state,  that  the  health  of  the 
first  Mrs.  Mytton  was  very  delicate  when  she  was 
married,  which  may  account  for  her  premature  death. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  107 

rock  on  which  thousands  of  her  sex  have  split,  and 
which  she  to  whom  I  am  alluding  did  not  steer 
clear  of.  The  first  Mrs.  Mytton  conducted  herself 
with  coldness  to  her  husband' 's  old  friends  and 
companions,  the  sons  of  the  native  gentry  of  his 
neighbourhood,  in  every  respect  her  equal.  To  a  man 
of  Mytton' s  temperament,  to  whom  an  old  friend 
was  "  as  the  core  of  the  heart,  or  the  apple  of  his 
eye,"  this  could  not  have  been  without  its  effect, 
and  on  one  occasion  is  said  to  have  drawn  tears 
from  him,  during  a  dinner  party  at  his  own  house ; 
and  from  my  knowledge  of  the  man,  I  doubt  not 
the  fact. 

There  is  a  readiness  to  believe  ill  reports  without 
examination  into  their  truth,  and  we  are  often 
found  guilty  by  those  who  will  not  trouble  them- 
selves to  look  into  the  accusation.  Is  all  true, 
then,  that  has  been  reported,  and  credited  by  too 
many,  of  Mr.  Mytton's  conduct  to  his  first  wife  ? 
Certainly  not.  Fame  loves  to  double,  and  the 
world  is  not  only  credulous,  but  loud,  and  too 
often  scurrilous,  in  its  censure.  Not  content  with 
the  various  embellishments  of  vulgar  rumour,  abso- 
lute falsehoods  were  in  general  circulation ;  and 
amongst  them  the  following :  —  He  was  accused 
of  having  thrown  her  lapdog — curse  those  lap- 
dogs,  married  woman  have  no  business  with  such 


108  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

pests  —  upon  the  fire ;  but  fortunately  for  the 
memory  of  my  departed  friend,  the  act  that  gave 
rise  to  the  vile  report  I  myself  was  a  witness  to. 
He  merely  took  it  up  in  his  arms,  threw  it  half  way 
up  to  the  drawing  -  room  ceiling,  and  caught  it, 
without  injury,  on  its  descent.  The  butler  (who 
happened  to  be  in  the  room  at  the  time)  called  out, 
"  Oh,  Mr.  Mytton,  you'll  kill  the  dog,"  and  the 
lady  screamed  and  cried  ;  and  on  this  was  the  dread- 
ful charge  founded.  In  the  hilarity  of  high  animal 
spirits,  Mytton  was  much  given  to  practical  jokes, 
as  all  his  friends  know.  Thus,  on  the  same  lady 
once  accompanying  him  to  the  kennel,  he  shut  the 
door  upon  her  for  an  instant,  after  he  himself  had 
got  outside  of  it,  and  this  was  magnified  into  his 
wishing,  or,  I  believe,  intending,  that  she  might  be 
devoured  by  his  fox-hounds.  Again  —  he  threw 
her  into  deep  water  !  Nonsense ;  he  was  never 
mad  enough  to  do  that.  He  merely,  one  very 
hot  day,  pushed  her  into  the  shallow  of  his  lake 
at  Halston,  a  little  over  her  shoes.  All  this  was, 
no  doubt,  wrong  by  a  young  lady  who  had  been 
brought  up  so  tenderly  as  Miss  Jones  had  been 
reared,  but  with  a  hundred  young  ladies  I  could 
name,  who  had  been  differently  treated  in  their 
childhood,  nothing  would  have  been  thought 
of  it,  beyond  a  joke.  And  then  we  should  look 
at  the  man.      If,  independently  of  his  own  imme- 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  109 

diate  connexions,  he  had  a  greater  regard  for  one  per- 
son than  for  any  other,  I  have  reason  to  believe  it  was 
for  his  Halston  chaplain,  and  he  was  two  or  three 
times  nearly  being  the  death  of  him — once  absolutely 
confining  him  to  his  bed  for  several  weeks,  from  the 
consequences  of  his  having,  by  way  of  a  "lark," 
knocked  him  over  some  iron  railing  at  his  hall  door 
at  Halston.  Cruelty  was  not  the  property — no,  not 
even  the  excrescence,  of  his  nature ;  although,  in 
his  practical  jokes,  I  admit  he  was  rough,  judging 
perhaps  of  other  people's  corporeal  feelings  by  his 
own.1 

I  have  said  he  was  without  excuse  for  ill  conduct 
to  his  second  wife,  and  I  must  again  say,  why. 
Not  merely  is  her  beauty  the  weakest  of  her  charms, 
and  her  disposition  and  temper  most  amiable,  but  all 
who  knew  her  will  join  with  me  in  saying,  that  if  a 
wife  had  been  selected  for  Mr.  Mytton  with  a  view  of 
reclaiming  him,  and  making  him  a  domestic  character 
and  a  kind  husband,  she  might  have  been  the  woman 
fixed  upon  for  the  experiment.  L  ike  Terence's  lover, 

1  How  many  times  have  I  overheard  such  remarks  as 
the  following,  made  on  Mr.  Mytton,  by  ladies,  in  my 
hearing,  in  distant  parts  of  England — and  indeed  now 
and  then  nearer  home.  "  Oh  !  he  is  a  brute  !  He  threw 
his  wife's  dog  on  the  fire  and  burnt  it  alive  !  He  tried 
to  drown  her,  and  wanted  his  hounds  to  eat  her  alive." 
Pshaw. 


no  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

then,  he  should  not  only  have  sworn  never  to  have 
forsaken,  or  unkindly  treated  her,  forasmuch  as 
she  was  the  object  of  his  choice,  and  had  been  with 
difficulty  obtained;  but  there  was  that  suitableness 
of  temper  (the  " conveniunt  mores"  of  the  poet), 
which  the  one  valued  so  highly,  and  the  other  had 
not,  perhaps,  met  with  before.  In  short,  there  was 
every  prospect  of  happiness  from  this  union,  and  for 
some  years  indeed  it  appeared  to  be  realized ;  but 
whether  it  was  that  he  once  again  nursed  a  vulture 
to  feed  on  his  own  heart,  or  whether  it  was  not  in 
his  nature  to  live  comfortably  for  any  length  of  time 
with  a  woman,  however  suited  to  his  taste,  and 
however  dear  to  his  heart,  is  a  question  not  to  be 
resolved  by  man.  He  has,  certainly,  been  exhibited 
as  a  pattern  of  ruffianism  in  his  conduct  towards 
this  amiable  lady,  and  as  some  detail  of  it  has 
already  been  before  the  public,  a  repetition  would 
be  useless,  as  well  as  painful  to  the  humanity 
of  my  readers.  But  here  comes  the  paradox.  He 
loved  this  woman  to  distraction ;  he  would  have 
given  the  apple  of  his  eye  for  her  at  any  time  ; 
he  would  have  risked  twenty  lives  to  have  gotten 
her  back  again,  and  obtained  her  forgiveness  ;  he 
raved  about  her  in  his  madness ;  and  sent  her  his 
dying  benediction  !  Were  those  brutal  deeds, 
then,  the  deeds  of  the  kind-hearted  John  Mytton — 
kind   to  every  living   soul    but   the  woman  whom 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  in 

he  loved  to  distraction  !  Oh,  no ;  they  were  the 
deeds  of  a  man  visited  by  the  hand  of  the  Almighty, 
afflicted  with  a  distempered  brain,  a  monomaniac 
beyond  all  doubt.  Could  he,  then,  like  Scylla, 
have  got  an  Act  of  Oblivion  passed  in  his  favour 
for  this  sad  stain  on  his,  otherwise,  good  name,  he 
would  perhaps  have  passed  even  an  earthly  tribunal. 
But  how  fortunate  is  it,  O  man  ! — and  especially 
for  you  who  may  be  the  loudest  to  condemn  him 
— that  we  have  reason  to  hope  there  is  more 
mercy  in  heaven  than  in  this,  often  too  reproachful 
world. 

But  is  it  possible,  it  will  still  be  asked,  that 
Mr.  Mytton  could  have  really  loved  either,  or 
both  of  his  amiable  wives  ?  Indeed,  reader,  he 
did,  and,  woman -like,  despite  of  his  conduct 
they  both  loved  him.  Neither  did  they  reproach 
him.  He  could  not  complain  with  the  noble 
bard — 

"Though  my  many  faults  defac'd  me, 
Could  no  other  arm  be  found, 
Than  the  one  which  once  embrac'd  me, 
To  inflict  a  cureless  wound  ?  " 

But  he  might  have  joined  his  brother  exile  in 
his  plaintive  song— 


ii2  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

"All  my  faults — perhaps  thou  knowest, 

All  my  madness — none  can  know ; 

All  my  hopes,  wheree'er  thou  goest, 

Wither — yet  with  thee  they  go." 


And  I  speak  from  experience  on  these  points. 
In  the  fatal  illness  of  his  first  wife,  I  obeyed  the 
call  of  friendship,  and  went  to  him  at  Clifton  Hot 
Wells,  where  she  died,  and  I  can  vouch  for  his 
sufferings  on  that  occasion.  Who  that  has  ever 
seen  him  look  upon  her  portrait  at  Halston,  and 
speak  of  her  afterwards,  could  doubt  the  truth  of 
what  I  have  asserted  ?  And  yet,  could  they  both 
rise  from  their  graves,  and  were  he  to  meet  her 
again  in  all  her  beauty,  and  with  all  her  charms, 
as  he  had  met  her  before  on  their  bridal  day,  I 
would  not  answer  for  many  years  of  domestic 
happiness — even  with  the  experience  of  the  past 
to  boot.  "  What  is  passion,"  says  my  Uncle 
Toby,  "  but  a  wild  beast  ?  "  and  unless  restrained 
by  reason,  or  subdued  by  temperance,  it  is  as 
furious  and  violent  as  the  brute  beast  himself.  We 
may  throw  a  gem  to  a  cock  or  a  pearl  to  a  swine, 
but  each  would  be  better  pleased  with  much 
humbler  fare  sought  for  and  selected  to  their  wild 
taste  and  pleasure  ;  and  I  need  not  apply  the  moral 
here.  It  has  been  shown  beyond  a  doubt,  that 
it  was  not  in  the  power  of  woman — no,  nor  in  the 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  113 

power  of  himself — to  have  made  John  Mytton  a 
good  husband ;  indeed  he  ought  not  to  have 
entered  into  the  marriage  state  at  all. 

We  must  then  still  proceed  in  the  catechetical 
mood.  How  could  any  woman  venture  on  Mr. 
Mytton,  as  a  husband,  after  the  publicity  given  to 
the  history  of  his  proceedings  towards  his  first 
wife  ?  I  answer — In  the  first  place,  many  of  the 
evil  reports  in  circulation  were  found  to  be  untrue. 
Secondly,  there  was  a  great  intimacy,  as  well  as 
congeniality — if  I  may  apply  the  word  here — 
between  the  brothers  of  his  second  lady  and  him- 
self, who  could  see  nothing  but  what  was  congenial 
in  their  brother  sportsman  and  friend.  Again — 
Why  was  Venus  (the  Egyptian  one)  represented 
standing  naked,  on  a  lion,  but  to  indicate  that  love 
conquers  even  the  fiercest  beast  ?  Here  then  was  the 
lion  in  toils.  The  suing  lover  was  on  his  very  best 
behaviour  during  the  days  of  probation,  to  which  I 
was  myself  a  witness,  for  he  often  made  my  house  his 
home,  as  it  was  within  two  miles  of  that  of  the  object 
of  his  choice.  Again,  "  Credula  res  amor  est." 
Love  believes  every  thing ;  and  not  only  the  young 
lady — and  young  she  was,  for,  if  my  memory  serves 
me,  she  was  only  in  her  seventeenth  year — but  we  all 
believed  there  was  a  fair  prospect  of  happiness  in  the 
anticipated  union.     Neither  was  it  suffered  to  take 


ii4  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

place  without  due  consideration.  The  pros  and  the 
cons  were  nicely  weighed  and  weighed  again  by  the 
anxious  mother,  and  they  appeared  nearly  to  balance 
the  scales.  Still  it  was  long  before  her  mind  was 
made  up,  and  in  the  intimacy  of  our  friendship  she 
put  the  following  home  question  to  me : — "  Had 
you  a  daughter  marriageable,"  said  this  amiable  lady, 
and  exemplary  pattern  of  a  wife  and  mother,1  "would 
you  like  to  see  her  married  to  Mr.  Mytton  ? "  I 
very  well  remember  my  answer,  which  was  this  : — 
"In  my  opinion,  Lady  Charlotte,  Mr.  Mytton  has  no 
business  with  a  wife  at  all ;  but  should  he  marry  your 
daughter,  Caroline,  there  is  a  greater  prospect  of  his 
making  a  good  husband  to  her,  than  to  any  other 
woman  in  the  whole  world."  Now  not  only  did 
my  words  prove  true,  but  for  several  years  he  was  a 
good  husband,  and  had  it  not  been  for  "  the  grave 
of  reason  "  which  excess  in  wine  became  to  him,  as 
indeed  it  does  to  most  other  men,  I  doubt  not  he 
would  have  continued  in  the  same  course.  But 
what  an  exemplary  wife  was  Miss  Caroline  Giffard 
to  him!  How  well  did  she  bear  her  seclusion  from 
society  ;  what  allowance  did  she  make  for  his 
libertine  life ;  how  much  did  it  cost  her  to  estrange 
her  heart  from  him  who  had  stamped  it  with  its 
first  impression  !      "  I  cannot  help  loving  him  with 

1  Lady  Charlotte  Giffard,  sister  to  the  late  Earl  Courtney, 
of  Powderham  Castle,  Devon. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  115 

all  his  faults,"  said  she,  to  me  one  evening  at 
Halston,  after  recounting  some  of  his  acts  which 
only  a  madman  would  have  committed ;  and  were 
my  life  to  endure  a  thousand  years,  I  could  never 
lose  my  recollection  —  unless  I  lost  my  reason 
— of  that  distressing  scene.  But  it  is  true, 
thought  I,  as  I  listened  to  the  sad  tale,  what  is 
said  of  woman — that  Heaven  is  pleased  to  make 
distress  become  her,  and  dresses  her  most  amiably 
in  tears. 

But  independently  of  conduct  towards  herself, 
there  were  other  circumstances  which  must  have 
been  the  source  of  much  pain  to  this  amiable 
lady.  Nothing  is  more  precious  to  a  woman's 
heart  than  the  good  name  and  credit  of  him  she 
loves.  The  unfortunate  connexion  then  between 
Mr.  Mytton  and  the  person  I  have  before  alluded 
to,  sank  deep  in  that  of  the  lady  in  question,  and 
well  might  it  have  stung  her  honest  pride  to  the 
quick.  The  best  of  men  is  not  free  from  human 
infirmity  ;  but  of  all  the  vices  short  of  what  is  termed 
"  the  great  offence,"  to  which  a  gentleman  can  be 
addicted,  nothing  so  far  debases  and  lowers  him  in 
the  eyes  of  all  who  have  an  interest  in  his  welfare,  as 
his  quitting  the  rank  to  which  he  by  birth  belongs. 
'Tis  the  last  step  to  a  general  dereliction  of  all  gen- 
tleman-like feelings  and  a  sorry  compliment  to  his 


n6  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

former  friends.  "Tell  me  with  whom  you 
associate,"  said  the  sage,  "  and  I'll  tell  you  what 
you  are,"  was  one  of  the  noblest  lessons,  if  not 
the  severest  rebuke,  ever  given  to  mankind.  It 
is  the  voice  of  custom,  echoed  by  the  voice  of 
reason. 

I  have  but  little  to  say  of  Mr.  Mytton  as  a 
father,  but  that  little  is  in  his  favour.  He  was 
very  fond  of  his  children,  although,  as  may  be 
expected,  he  had  a  peculiar  way  of  showing  his 
affection  for  them  —  such  as  tossing  them  in  the 
air  as  he  did  the  lap-dog ;  giving  view-holloas  in 
their  ears  at  a  very  tender  age,  throwing  oranges 
at  their  heads,  and  all  such  practical  jokes ;  but  as 
the  brute  said  of  the  eels  he  was  skinning,  it  was 
"  nothing  when  they  were  used  to  it,"  and  I  think 
his  conduct  towards  them  was  nearly  sans  reproche. 
He  often  spoke  of  them  in  his  exile ;  and  when  he 
came  in  contact  with  other  persons'  children,  about 
the  age  of  his  own,  a  close  observer  would  detect 
the  workings  of  a  strong  inward  feeling  which  it  was 
not  in  his  power  to  conceal.  But  why  should  he  wish 
to  conceal  it  ?  there  is  a  chord  in  the  breast  of  a  savage 
that  responds  to  the  voice  of  nature  !  John  Mytton 
himself  could  alone  answer  this  question ;  but  as  a 
celebrated  character  in  antiquity  wished  for  a  window 
in  his  breast  that  every  one  might  see  into  it,  a  peep 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  117 

into  that  of  this  extraordinary  man  would  have 
exhibited  qualities  and  virtues  which  not  only  the 
world  refused  to  give  him  credit  for,  but  which 
he  himself  seemed  resolved  it  should  not  believe 
he  possessed.  Strange  and  unfathomable  man ! 
Hypocrisy  is  the  homage  which  vice  pays  to 
virtue ;  God  knows  you  paid  her  nothing  in  that 
coin ;  you  seemed  determined  to  make  us  think 
you  kept  no  account  with  her  at  all ! 


PART   III 

I  HAD  not  seen  Mr.  Mytton  for  at  least  two 
years  previously  to  my  quitting  England,  but 
I  had  heard  some  unpleasant  reports  touching  his 
pecuniary  affairs ;  yet  it  was  not  until  I  read  the 
advertisement  in  The  Times  of  the  sale  of  all  his 
effects  at  Halston,  that  I  found  his  race  was  run. 
As  the  greatness  of  every  man's  fall  is  measured 
by  the  height  from  which  he  fell,  my  heart  bled  as 
I  waded  through  the  melancholy  detail  of  objects 
so  familiar  to  my  mind,  so  dear  to  himself,  and 
also  associated  with  brighter  days  of  my  own. 
"  Poor  fellow,"  said  I,  to  a  mutual  friend  who 
was  at  my  side  ;  "  better  he  had  never  lived,  than 
to  have  to  taste  those  bitter  moments  which  in 
future  must  be  his  portion.  He  who  towered 
like  the  cedar  will  now  be  trampled  upon  like 
the  bramble,  and  perhaps  neglected  by  those 
whom  his  bounty  once  fed."  What  became  of 
him,  however,  after  the  sale  of  his  effects  at 
Halston  —  for  every  thing  was  sold  except 
Euphrates,  the  race-horse  —  it  is  not  material  to 
inquire ;    and  I  only  know  that,  being  in  fear  of 

119 


120  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

arrest  by  creditors,  he  sojourned  for  some  time  at 
a  small  hotel  in  Richmond,1  from  which  place  are 
to  be  dated  circumstances  and  events  deeply  affect- 
ing his  future,  short,  but  melancholy  term  of  life. 

On  the  5th  of  November,  1831,  during  my 
residence  in  the  town  of  Calais,  I  was  surprised  by 
a  violent  knocking  at  my  door,  and  so  unlike  what  I 
had  ever  heard  before  in  that  quiet  town,  that,  being 
at  hand,  I  was  induced  to  open  the  door  myself; 
when,  to  my  no  little  astonishment,  there  stood 
John  Mytton  !  "  In  God's  name,"  said  I,  "  what 
has  brought  you  to  France  ?  "  "  Why,"  he  replied, 
11  just  what  brought  yourself  to  France;  (parodying 
the  old  song)  three  couple  of  bailiff's  were  hard  at 
my  brush."  But  what  did  I  see  before  me  ?  The 
active,  vigorous,  well-shapen  John  Mytton,  whom 
I  had  left  some  years  back  in  Shropshire  ?  Oh, 
no  !  compared  with  him,  'twas  the  "  reed  shaken 
by  the  wind "  ;  there  stood  before  me,  a  round- 
shouldered,  decrepid,  tottering  old-young  man,  if 
I  may  be  allowed  such  a  term,  and  so  bloated 
by  drink  that  I  might  have  exclaimed,  with  Ovid, 

1  Before  going  there,  I  believe  he  was  a  good  deal  at 
one  of  the  fashionable  bachelor  hotels  in  Bond-street, 
where  he  might  be  seen  sitting  down  to  dinner,  with 
bailiffs,  money-lenders,  and  ragamuffins  of  all  descriptions, 
who  haunted  and  followed  him  wherever  he  went. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  121 

"Accedant  capiti  cornua,  Bacchus  eris."1 

But  there  was  a  worse  sight  than  this.  There 
was  a  mind,  as  well  as  a  body  in  ruins ;  the  one 
had  partaken  of  the  injury  done  to  the  other,  and 
it  was  at  once  apparent  that  all  was  a  wreck.  In 
fact,  he  was  a  melancholy  spectacle  of  fallen 
man  —  of  one,  over  whom  all  the  storms  of  life 
seemed  to  be  engendered  in  one  dark  cloud. 

After  drinking  some  wine,  he  took  his  leave  of 
me,  abruptly,  saying  he  was  going  in  a  carriage  to 
Guines,  a  small  town  eight  miles  from  Calais,  where 
he  had  been  quartered,  when  in  the  Hussars,  with 
the  army  of  occupation ;  but,  taking  me  affection- 
ately by  the  hand,  said,  "  I  shall  come  to  you 
to-morrow,  for  I  have  a  great  deal  to  say  to  you." 
The  morrow  came  and  he  himself  came,  accom- 
panied by  Mr.  Vaughton,2  and  I  hope  neither  of  us 
may  have  occasion  to  witness  such  another  scene. 
His  pecuniary  affairs  appeared  not  to  give  him  a 
moment's  uneasiness.  As  regarded  them,  fancy, 
or  something  worse,  had  dressed  the  future 
prospect  with  the  gayest  colours ;  he  had  seventy 

1  If  you  had  but  horns  on  your  head,  you  would  be 
Bacchus. 

2  A  brother  sportsman  from  Warwickshire,  at  this  time 
residing  in  France. 


122  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

thousand  pounds  to  receive,  he  said,  after  all  his 
debts  should  be  paid ;  had  engaged  McDonald, 
the  jockey,  to  be  his  trainer  and  rider  of  his  new 
stud  of  race-horses ;  and  had  purchased  a  capital 
house  in  Curzon-street,  May-fair,  where  of  course 
there  were  a  knife  and  fork  for  me,  and  bail  for 
ten  thousand  pounds !  Neither  did  he  appear 
to  care  two  pence  for  what  had  occurred  at 
Halston.  It  was  to  be  reinstated  in  its  former 
splendour,  and  once  more  was  I  to  be  his  guest. 
It  would  have  been  cruel  to  have  undeceived  him 
here.  Like  the  good  citizen  of  Argos,  he  might 
have  upbraided  us  for  so  doing,  and  exactly  in  his 

words : — 

"  Pol  me  occidistis,  amici, 
Non  servastis,"  ait,  "  cui  sic  extorta  voluptas, 
Et  demptus  per  vim  mentis  gratissimus  error.''1 

But  the  sore  was  not  yet  laid  bare.  A  very 
elegant  writer  has  observed,  "there  are  some 
strokes  of  calamity  that  scathe  and  scorch  the 
soul,  that  penetrate  the  vital  seat  of  happiness — 
and  blast  it,  never  again  to  put  forth  bud  or 
blossom  ; "  and  this  we  could  perceive  was  his 
case.  He  was  writhing  under  one  of  them — 
the    madness    of    wounded    affection,     and    though 

1  It  would  have  been  better,  my  friends,  that  you  should 
have  destroyed  me,  than  to  have  deprived  me  of  the  most 
agreeable  delusion  of  the  human  mind. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  r23 

vanquished,  he  would  not  yield.  "  I'll  have  my 
wife  back  again,  by  G — d,"  said  he  ;  "  look  at 
these  marks"  pointing  to  a  wound  on  each  wrist, 
which  it  appeared  he  had  purposely  kept  from 
healing;  "they  handcuffed  me;1  but,  so  help  me 
G — d,  I'll  have  her  yet."  Here  a  violent 
hysterick  affection  put  an  end  to  the  scene ;  but  it 
was  evident  that  not  only  had  the  "  iron  entered 
into  his  soul,"  but  that  the  foundation  of  his  happi- 
ness was  sapped,  and  that,  in  his  then  course  of  life, 
either  his  reason  or  his  health  must  give  way. 

One  week's  experience  of  his  proceedings — for  he 
was  never  sober  throughout  the  day — confirmed  me  in 
the  above  view  of  his  case,  and  I  thought  it  my  duty 
to  take  some  precautions.  The  first  step  was  to  inter- 
rogate his  valet,  as  to  what  instrument  he  had  in  his 
possession  by  which  he  could  put  an  end  to  what — if 
he  ever  suffered  himself  to  take  a  clear  and  sober  view 
of  it — must  have  been  a  barren  and  cheerless  exist- 
ence ;  and  the  next,  to  inform  his  friends  of  my  fears. 

1  He  alluded  to  a  desperate  attempt  he  had  made  to 
regain  possession  of  his  wife,  after  she  had  returned  to 
her  family  at  Chillington  Hall ;  when  it  was  found 
absolutely  necessary  for  the  constables  to  handcuff  him, 
before  they  could  make  themselves  secure  of  his  person. 
It  has  been  stated  that  he  knocked  down  eight  persons 
in  the  rencontre.  No  doubt  he  went  "big  with  daring 
determinations,"  but  he  was  foiled  by  a  good  look-out. 


124  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

Barring  his  mother,  his  uncle,  Mr.  Owen,  of 
Woodhouse,  near  Shrewsbury  (one  of  his  guard- 
ians), was  his  nearest  relation;  to  whom  I 
stated  my  apprehensions  that  his  nephew  would 
either  go  mad,  or  die,  and  very  shortly  too,  and 
wished  for  his  advice  as  to  how  I  should  act  in  case 
my  suspicions  should  prove  well  grounded.  His 
answer  as  regarded  myself  was  kind,  and  that  of  a 
gentleman ;  but  as  concerned  his  nephew  it  was 
conclusive.  He  had  never,  he  said,  taken  his 
advice  in  any  one  instance,  therefore  he  declined 
offering  it  on  the  occasion  on  which  I  sought  it, 
and  muchsoever  as  he  lamented  the  ruin  that  had 
befallen  him,  it  was  a  consolation  to  him  to  reflect 
that  he  had  not  in  the  smallest  degree  contributed 
to  it.  (This  letter  is  dated  November  25,  1831, 
just  twenty  days  after  his  nephew's  arrival  at  Calais. ) 

It  may  be  easily  imagined  that  the  arrival  of 
my  old  friend  at  Calais,  in  the  state  in  which  he 
then  appeared,  was  any  thing  but  what  I  could 
have  desired.  My  pen  was  at  that  time 
employed  on  a  very  interesting  subject,  and  I 
knew,  from  past  experience,  how  many  times 
in  the  day  I  should  be  interrupted  by  him.  But 
I  had  shared  his  prosperity,  and  I  was  not  going 
to  desert  him  in  his  adversity.  He  did  not,  how- 
ever, want  for  society  at  Calais.     He  gave  dinners 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  125 

at  his  hotel ;  and  as  Epicurus's  wise  man  would 
cultivate  friendship,  as  he  would  the  earth,  for  ivhat 
it  produces,  there  were  plenty  such  wise  men  to 
be  found  in  Calais.1  This,  however,  was  not  the 
worst  of  it.  Still  wiser  men  followed  him  from 
London,  as  I  shall  straightways  take  occasion 
to  show,  as  also  how  fortunately  their  designs 
were  frustrated. 

Although  my  house,  with  its  humble  fare,  was 
always  open  to  Mr.  Mytton,  I  never  made  one  of  his 
dinner  parties  ;  but  one  evening,  about  nine  o'clock, 
he  came  into  my  dining  room,  accompanied  by  a  man, 
in  a  rough  great  coat,  whom  he  introduced  as  a  livery- 
stable  keeper  in  Edgeware-road,  but  who,  in  my  eye, 
had  every  appearance  of  a  London  thief.  On  hearing 
Mr.  Mytton  say  something  of  a  draft  or  bill,  I  asked 
this  person  what  was  the  amount  of  his  demand  on 
Mr.  Mytton,  when  he  replied,  "  under  ^100."  To 
cut  this  story  short  then,  I  shall  only  state,  that  I 
cautioned  my  friend  against  giving  bills  in  a  foreign 
country,  and  also  requested  his  old  acquaintance,  Mr. 
Longden,  then  residing  at  Calais,  also  to  caution  him 

1  Here  the  character  of  the  man  appears  in  its  true 
colour.  One  gentleman,  previously  unknown  to  him, 
borrowed  his  coat,  with  the  Anson  hunt  button  on  it, — 
rather  unceremoniously,  as  he  said, — to  go  to  a  ball.  He 
ordered  his  valet  to  line  the  gentleman's  own  coat  sleeves 
with  fish  hooks  against  he  called  for  it,  the  next  day. 


126  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

— for  our  suspicions  were  equally  aroused — but 
we  were  both  equally  repulsed  with  "  mind  your 
own  business,"  or  words  to  that  effect ;  and  the 
rascal  succeeded,  that  evening,  after  he  left  my 
house,  in  getting  his  signature  to  a  bill  for  ^200  !  ! 
And  even  this  was  nearly  being  not  the  worst  of  it. 
A  gang  of  swindlers,  of  which  this  fellow  was  one, 
were  in  the  town  with  stamps  suitable  to  ^5,000, 
for  which  amount  they  intended  to  get  him  to  sign 
bills,  with  the  promise  of  remitting  him  the  money 
for  them.1 

But  this  was  only  the  commencement  of  that 
memorable  evening's  work.  After  repairing  to  the 
hotel,  where  the  bill  was  signed,  Mr.  Mytton  and 
bis  friend  sallied  forth  to  a  "  finish,"  and  somewhere 
about  midnight,  returned  to  the  hotel,  and  now 
comes  the  climax. 

But,  reader,  one  word  with  you  first.  You  have 
heard,  no  doubt,  of  many  memorable  deeds  performed 
by  fire.  You  have  read  that  somebody  set  fire  to 
Troy,  Alexander  to  Persepolis,  Nero  to  Rome,  a 
baker  to  London,  a  rascally  Caliph  to  the  treasures  of 

1  The  payment  of  this  bill  was  stopped  by  placards  in 
the  streets  of  London,  in  which  the  names  of  other 
gentlemen  who  had  been  swindled  by  the  same  party 
appeared. 


1 


^ 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  127 

Persepolis,  and  the  brave  Mucius  Scaevola  to 
his  own  hand  and  arm  to  frighten  the  proud 
Porsenna  into  a  peace;  but  did  you  ever  hear 
of  a  man  setting  fire  to  his  own  shirt,  to  frighten 
away  the  hiccup  ?  Such,  however,  is  the  climax 
I  have  alluded  to ;  and  this  was  the  manner  in 
which  it  was  performed  :  "  D — n  this  hiccup," 
said  Mytton,  as  he  stood  undressed  on  the  floor, 
apparently  in  the  act  of  getting  into  his  bed  ; 
"  but  I'll  frighten  it  away  ;  "  so  seizing  a  lighted 
candle,  applied  it  to  the  tail  of  his  shirt,  and — 
it  being  a  cotton  one — he  was  instantly  enveloped 
in  flames. 

Now,  how  was  his  life  saved  ?  is  the  next 
question  that  might  be  asked.  Why,  by  the  active 
exertions  of  his  London  customer,  and  of  another 
stout  and  intrepid  young  man  that  happened  to 
be  in  the  room,  who  jointly  threw  him  down  on 
the  ground  and  tore  his  shirt  from  his  body,  piece- 
meal.    Then,    here    again    comes    John    Mytton ! 

"  The   hiccup  is    gone,  by  ,"    said   he,  and 

reeled,  naked,  into  his  bed. 

It  is  easily  to  be  supposed  that  the  irregular  life 
Mr.  Mytton  was  at  this  time  leading  had  its  due 
weight  with  his  valet,  and,  although  he  had  been  some 
four  or  five  years  in  his  service,  he  had  left  him  that 


128  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

night  to  his  fate,  and  was  pursuing  his  own  pleasures 
in  Calais.  The  following  morning  however,  between 
the  hours  of  seven  and  eight,  he  came  to  inform  me 
of  what  his  master  had  done,  and  wished  me  to 
come  instantly  to  see  him.  "  What  doctor  have  you 
got  ?  "  said  I.  "  None"  replied  the  man.  "  Send 
for  Dr.  Souville  immediately,"  added  I,  "and  I 
will  come  to  your  master  as  soon  as  I  am  dressed."  x 

Shall  I  ever  forget  the  scene  this  morning 
presented  ?  There  lay  Mr.  Mytton,  not  only 
shirtless,  but  sheetless,  with  the  skin  of  his  breast, 
shoulders,  and  knees  of  the  same  colour  with  a 
newly-singed  bacon  hog.  He  saluted  me,  as 
usual,  with  a  view  holloa,  but  I  told  him  that 
was  no  time  for  joking,  and  asked  him  why  he 
committed  so  silly  an  act,  and  one  that  might  very 
probably  be  the  cause  of  his  death  ? — in  fact,  had  the 
flames  caught  his  body  one  inch  lower  down,  his 
intestines  would  have  been  burnt  and  he  must  have 
perished  !  His  answer  was  —  the  answer  of  a 
madman — that  he  wished  to  shoiv  me  how  he  could 
bear  pain.  The  scene  closed  with  the  arrival  of  the 
doctor,  who  applied  the  usual  palliatives,  but  whose 

1  Our  eminent  English  physician,  Dr.  Bradley,  was  at 
this  time  absent  from  Calais.  Dr.  Souville,  however,  is 
the  principal  French  physician,  and  of  acknowledged 
practical  ability. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  129 

opinion  as  to  the  result,  it  was  then  almost  useless 
to  ask  for. 


Any  man  but  John  My  tton,.  would  have  tried  to 
have  aided  the  exertions  of  his  doctor,  to  alleviate 
sufferings  which  very  shortly  became  severe,  but  he 
absolutely  added  fuel  to  the  fire.  The  more  he 
smarted  the  more  he  drank,  but,  like  the  Spartan 
boy,  he  never  squeaked.  "  Can't  I  bear  pain 
well  ? "  he  would  say  to  me  six  times  in  the  day, 
and  in  truth  he  did  bear  it  well.  But  although 
it  sometimes  happens  that  the  spirit  is  willing, 
whilst  the  flesh  is  weak,  here  the  flesh  was  the 
stronger  of  the  two,  for  the  mind  of  the  sufferer 
very  soon  became  affected.  I  have,  however, 
omitted  to  mention  one  act  he  committed  the 
day  after  his  accident,  which,  if  committed  by 
any  other  man  but  himself,  would  have  been 
evidence  to  have  shown  that  he  was  already 
mad.  "  Is  not  going  t0  dine  with  you  to- 
day ? "  said  he  to  me.  On  my  answering  in 
the  affirmative,  he  observed,  that  I  might  have 
asked  himself  to  have  met  him.  "  It  would  cost  you 
your  life,"  resumed  I ;  "  you  must  be  stark  mad  to 
think  of  going  out  in  the  state  you  are  at  present." 
He  gave  me  one  of  those  looks  which  generally  im- 
plied mischief,  and  which  were  well  understood  by  his 
friends  ;  but  said  nothing  more  at  the  moment.    Just 


i3o  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

after  we  were  seated  at  our  dinner,  however,  in 
walked  John  Mytton ;  but  although  he  sat  out 
the  meal  and  half  an  hour  besides,  he  fainted  twice, 
and  was  glad  to  return  to  his  bed.  But  even 
this  is  a  trifle  to  what  he  afterwards  did.  He  had 
been  five  weeks  in  his  bed,  when  he  declared  he 
would  dine  with  me  on  New  Year's  day.  Nothing 
but  the  straitwaistcoat  would  have  restrained  him, 
and  he  came ;  and  moreover,  because  there  were 
not  four  horses  to  the  carriage,  to  take  him  back 
to  his  hotel — not  three  hundred  yards — he  would 
walk,  without  even  a  great  coat,  but  supported  by 
two  persons,  and  although  the  air  was  cold  and  damp 
he  was  not  a  whit  the  worse  for  it.  What  would 
some  people  give  for  such  a  constitution  as  his, 
and  how  difficult  was  it  even  for  him  to  destroy  it ! 

Of  all  the  uncertainties  of  our  present  state, 
said  Dr.  Johnson,  the  most  dreadful  and  alarming 
is  the  uncertain  continuance  of  reason ;  and 
although  there  may  be  "  a  pleasure  in  madness 
madmen  only  know,"  it  is  harrowing  to  the 
feelings  of  others  to  behold  it.  My  prediction 
respecting  Mr.  Mytton  was  fulfilled ;  he 
became  to  a  certain  extent  deranged  in  about 
a  fortnight  after  the  burning,  and  it  was 
quite  evident  he  would  very  shortly  become  a 
maniac.     Symptoms  at  length  gave  apprehension  of 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  131 

his  becoming  at  times  dangerous ;  the  straitwaist- 
coat  was  ordered,  and  the  men  were  in  readiness  in 
the  house  to  apply  it.  "Wait,"  said  I,  "and  let 
me  try,  once  more,  if  I  can  arouse  him  to  a  sense 
of  his  situation  "  ;  and  entering  his  chamber  alone, 
the  following  conversation  passed  : — 

"  Mytton,"  said  I,  "  I  come  to  tell  you  that 
your  doctors  assure  me  you  will  be  a  corpse  in 
three  days,  unless  you  give  up  drinking  brandy." 
"  So  much  the  better,"  he  replied,  "  I  wish 
to  die."  "  That  is  not  the  speech  of  a  man 
of  your  good  understanding,"  I  observed ;  "  you 
may  yet  see  happy  days  if  you  will  give  up 
drinking  brandy.  Will  you  promise  me  you 
will  give  it  up  ? "  He  said  he  would  not ; 
but  on  my  telling  him  there  were  men  in  the 
house  ready  to  put  his  person  under  restraint, 
he  said  he  would  promise  to  drink  only  what 
his  doctors  might  allow  him ;  and  this  was  all 
I  wanted.  The  keepers  and  the  waistcoat  were 
dismissed. 

His  mind  soon  experienced  the  benefit  of  this 
wholesome  change,  but  the  irritation  from  the  burning 
brought  his  life  into  peril.  In  fact,  Dr.  Souville  told 
me  he  did  not  expect  him  to  live,  apprehending 
typhus  would  ensue ;  and,  as  an  old  Warwickshire 


132  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

brother  sportsman1  who  saw  him  said  of  him, 
"  no  other  man  but  Mytton  would  have  survived." 
He  would  faint  on  being  moved  from  his  bed 
to  his  chair,  and  he  had  every  symptom  of  sink- 
ing nature.  Under  these  circumstances,  I  had 
a  duty  to  perform  which  I  did  not  shrink  from, 
but  never  should  I  have  dreamt  of  making 
public  the  result,  were  it  not  that  I  consider  it 
honourable  to  the  man,  and  it  cannot  fail  of 
being  satisfactory  to  his  friends.  Sitting  opposite 
to  him,  then,  by  the  fire-side,  I  thus,  in  pain, 
addressed  him.  u  I  think  it  right  to  tell  you, 
your  life  is  in  danger ;  I  know  you  too  well  not 
to  be  convinced  that  you  will  not  scoff  at  what 
I  am  going  to  suggest.  Would  you  like  to  see 
our  clergyman,  Mr.  Liptrot  ?  He  is  a  liberal- 
minded,  worthy  man,  without  an  atom  of  humbug 
about  him."  "  Draw  your  chair  by  the  side  of  me," 
said  Mytton.  On  my  placing  it  on  his  right,  he 
requested  me  to  place  it  on  his  left,  and  to  sit  my- 
self down  upon  it ;  when  putting  his  left  hand  into 
mine,  he  struck  his  breast  violently  with  his  right, 
and  with  as  much  vehemence  as  in  his  then  weak 
state  he  could  command,  exclaimed — "  I  never 
intentionally  injured  any  person  in  my  life,  and  I 
hope  God  will  forgive  me."  These  words  were 
followed  by  a  flood  of  tears  ;  yet  how  exactly  do 
1  Mr.  Henry  Wyatt. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  133 

they  resemble  those  of  Manfred  to  the  Abbot  of 
St.  Maurice : — 

"I  hear  thee.     This  is  my  reply;  whate'er 
I  may  have  been,  or  am,  doth  rest  between 
Heaven  and  myself — I  shall  not  choose  a  mortal 
To  be  my  mediator." 

The  offer  of  sending  for  the  clergyman  was  declined, 
but  without  further  remark. 

Cicero  says,  no  man  in  his  sound  mind  is  quite 
destitute  of  religion ;  and  even  unsound  as  poor 
Mytton's — to  a  certain  extent — always  was,  I  am 
quite  sure  he  was  not  destitute  of  it,  although  his 
proud  spirit  was  loth  to  own  a  dread  of  any  thing, 
either  human  or  divine.  But  supposing  he  had 
never  owned  it  to  man,  we  are  not  to  imply  that 
he  did  not  own  it  to  his  God ;  for  although  the 
fall  of  Solomon  is  told,  we  know  nothing  of  his 
repentance.  I  shall  have  occasion,  however,  to 
show  that  the  subject  of  this  memoir  was  a  sincere, 
though  perhaps  a  late  penitent,  and  I  rejoice  at 
having  it  in  my  power  to  do  so,  as  I  should 
have  been  sorry  to  hear  that  he  "  died  and  made 
no  sign." 

There  is  a  scrap  of  Latin  which  has  often  met  my 
eye,  and  is  as  often  applied  to  nations  as  to  individuals, 


i34  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

but  I  cannot  say  I  know  the  author  of  it.  **  Quos  Deus 
(or  quern  Jupiter}  vult perdere,prius  dementat ,-"  which 
is  as  much  as  to  say,  that  those  persons  whom  the  Al- 
mighty wishes  to  destroy,  he  previously  causes  to  grow 
mad  (which  is,  I  believe,  the  literal  and  only  meaning 
of  demento,a-word  not  in  use  in  elegant  Latin).  I  know 
not  on  whose  authority  the  conduct  of  man's  Maker  is 
thus,  I  think,  impiously  speculated  upon ;  but  should 
a  fiat  so  dreadful  have  been  really  pronounced,  let  us 
hope  it  will  plead  in  favour  of  some  of  the  acts  of  poor 
John  Mytton,  for  which,  with  a  heart  like  his,  nothing 
short  of  madness  could  possibly  account  or  justify.1 

1  It  never  before  fell  to  my  lot  to  watch  the  motions  and 
actions  of  persons  labouring  under  a  temporary  aberration 
of  the  mind,  much  more  to  receive  letters  from  them. 
Amongst  the  numerous  ones  which  my  poor  friend  wrote 
me  in  that  melancholy  situation,  the  following  convince 
me  that,  however  discordant  may  be  the  instrument  of 
thought  (the  brain)  at  the  time — though  some  keys  may 
jar,  there  are  others  which  yield  the  usual  tones  to  the  same 
touch : — 

"  Dear  Ramrod  (for  Nimrod), 
"You  shall  not  stay  longer  with  old  Jack  Longden 
in  my  sitting  room,  but  come  up  stairs  to  see  a  Hero, 
late  Chillington,  die  the  death  of  a  saint."  Here 
was  the  ruling  passion,  strong  even  in  madness  and  in 
death,  for  he  was  very  ill  at  the  time.  Hero  was  the 
name  of  a  famous  hunter  he  bought  of  me,  which  he 
afterwards  called  Chillington  ;  and  he  married  a  daughter 
of  the  ancient  house  of  Chillington.  There  were  as 
many  as  half  a  dozen  dashes  under  some  of  these  words. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  135 

On  the  morrow  of  the  day  on  which  I  had  the  con- 
versation with  Mr.  Mytton  on  the  serious  condition  in 
which  he  then  appeared  placed,  he  asked  me,  as  he 
lay  in  his  bed  to  get  a  sheet  of  paper  and  write  what 

Again,  there  was  the  following  ;  in  which  the  fatal  passion 
for  the  Circean  cup — that  cup  which,  like  Nabal's,  turned 
a  heart  of  flesh  to  a  heart  of  stone — too  plainly  appears. 
"  Dear  Ram., 

"  Jam  satis  terris  nivis  atque  dira*  grandinis  misit  Pater, 
et,  rubente  "  porto.     Here  goes  a  bumper  to  old  Ram." 
Signed  "John  Mytton." 

This  extraordinary  production  is  dated  "  the  Gallies," 
and  directed  thus  : — "  Fall  at  a  rasper  I  To  Mytton's  best 
friend."  The  quotation  from  Horace  is  worth  notice, 
inasmuch  as  every  word  is  rightly  spelled,  the  punctuation 
correct,  and  the  capital  "  P"  in  Pater,  as  in  the  original. 
There  were  six  dashes  under  the  word  "rubente"  and 
four  under  "porto,"  but  the  inverted  commas  ceased  at 
"  rubente  !  "     The  following  postcript  was  added  to  it. 

"  Nummi  si  nolo  custodi  rendere  vinctus 

Pracmii  num  mi  (eheus  miseri !)  restat  ahenea  turris?" 

"  Prison  or  not  to  prison — can  it  be  a  debt,  as  it's  not 
self-contracted,  non  sponte  sua,  nee  voluntate  meorum 
filiorum."  Here  it  appears  his  Latin  is  not  quite  so  cor- 
rect, but  healludes  to  the  impression,  that  he  was  not  aware 
on  what  account  his  liberty  was  denied  him.  This  last 
epistle  wassucceeded  by  another  thesame  day,  which  shows 
that  the  brain  became  more  disturbed.  "  Dear  Ram.  H — 1 
to  pay — come  here  instantly,  they  are  all  found  out — poison. 
Ever  J.  M."  I  have  a  hundred  such  notes,  the  dates  of  all 
which  I  marked,  and  I  suppose  Mr.  Roberts,  the  proprietor 
of  his  hotel,  had  as  many.  On  perusing  several  of  them? 
I  could  have  exclaimed,  with  Shakespeare, 

"  Oh,  what  a  noble  mind  is  here  o'erthrown  !  " 


136  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

he  dictated.  I  did  so,  and  it  consisted  of  the 
following  lines : — 

"  Condemn'd  in  youth  to  meet  the  grave, 
I  hope  to  be  received  above ; 
Render  my  soul  to  Him  who  gave, 
My  latest  breath  to  you,  my  love." 

He  then  requested  they  might  be  placed  in  his  view 
on  the  door  of  his  chamber  (where  they  remained 
for  a  considerable  time)  ;  "  and,"  said  he,  "  when  I 
die,  I  trust  to  your  sending  them  to  my  wife."  I  told 
him  I  would  do  so  ;  and  had  he  died  at  that  time, 
I  should  certainly  have  complied  with  the  request. 

It  would  be  both  useless  and  tedious  to  describe 
the  various  scenes  that  passed  in  the  chamber 
of  my  poor  friend,  who  was  guarded  day  and 
night  by  three  persons  at  a  time,  after  he  re- 
covered his  strength ;  but  some  of  these  scenes 
would  put  the  powers  of  description  at  defiance. 
His  conversation,  for  example,  with  these  per- 
sons, who  were  English  smugglers,  was  at  times 
ludicrous  in  the  extreme,  and  highly  charac- 
teristic of  the  man.1     Previously  to  this  precaution, 

1  There  was  nothing  that  medical  skill  or  humanity 
could  suggest  left  untried  to  relieve  the  sufferings  of  Mr. 
Mytton.  Several  of  his  friends  sat  up,  or  lay  on  a  spare 
bed  the  whole  night  in  his  room,  and  of  course  I  took 
my  turn.     It    happened    one  night,  that    I  was  accom- 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  137 

however,  rather  an  awful  scene  was  witnessed  by 
me.  A  servant  from  his  hotel  came  to  inform  me 
that  Mr.  Mytton  had  got  six  carving  knives  in  his 
possession,  and  was  by  himself  in  his  room.  Mr. 
Vaughton  and  myself  entered  it,  and  such  we  found 
to  be  the  case,  with  the  trifling  difference  that  only  two 
of  the  six  were  carving  knives,  the  other  four  being 
dinner  or  case  knives.  He  was  lying  on  his  bed  with 
the  six  knives  in  his  hands,  when  I  placed  myself  at 
its  side,  and  Mr.  Vaughton — a  very  powerful  man — 
stood  at  the  foot.  "Heyday,  Squire,"  said  I,  "  what 
are  you  going  to  do  with  all  thoseknives."  "Comeand 
lay  down  by  my  side,"saidhe,  "and  I'll  show  you  (of 

paniedonmy  watch  by  a  waiter  from  some  hotel  in  London, 
who  was  sent  over  to  Mr.  Roberts's  hotel  for  the  purpose 
of  learning  the  French  language.  "  Nimrod !  "  exclaimed 
Mr.  Mytton ;  but  I  feigned  sleep.  ' '  Nimrod ! "  he  repeated, 
"  I  want  to  talk  to  you  ; "  but  I  was  still  asleep.  '  'Come  then, " 
said  he  to  the  waiter,  ' '  sit  by  me,  and  talk  to  me.  You  have 
heard  of  my  hounds  ?  "  "  Your  hounds,  sir,"  said  the  man 
— a  thorough-bred  cockney  ;  "  I  can't  say  as  I  ever  did." 
"Why,  you  d — d  fool,  where  have  you  lived  all  your 
life  ?  Did  you  never  hear  of  Euphrates  ?  "  "  I  can't  say 
as  I  did,  sir,"  replied  the  man.  "  What  !  "  said  Mytton, 
"never  heard  of  Euphrates  the  race-horse!  I'll  have  you 
smothered  to-morrow,  by  G — d.  Get  back  to  your  great 
chair,  and  go  to  sleep  I  "  This  reminds  me  of  an  anecdote, 
related  by  Boswell,  in  his  most  amusing  Life  of  Dr.  Johnson. 
The  Doctor  was  asked  how  he  liked  his  attendant  (a 
stranger),  who  sat  up  one  night  with  him,  in  his  illness  ? 
"  Not  at  all ;  "  was  his  answer.  "  The  fellow  is  an  idiot ; 
he  is  also  as  awkward  as  a  turnspit  when  first  put  into 
the  wheel,  and  as  sleepy  as  a  dormouse." 


138  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

course  I  begged  to  be  excused)  ;  I  have  made 
your  fortune  and  old  Vaughton's  too — a  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  pounds  apiece  for  each  of  you — 
for  I  have  found  out  that  these  knives  iv'ill  extract 
fire  from  fiesh."  "  Ah,"  said  Mr.  Vaughton, 
"  but  how  much  better  would  they  do  that  if  they 
were  warmed  at  the  fire."  "To  be  sure,"  replied 
our  poor  deluded  friend  ;  and  giving  them  into  his 
hands,  they  were  soon  put  outside  the  door.  Now 
it  will  no  doubt  appear  a  mystery  in  what  way 
these  knives  could  have  been  procured,  and  well 
it  may.  But  will  it  be  credited  that  they  had  been 
given  to  him  by  his  own  servant,  of  whom  I  had 
only  a  few  weeks  before  required  possession  of 
every  thing — even  to  his  nail-knife — by  which  a 
wound  to  his  person  could  be  given.  Such,  how- 
ever, was  the  case ;  and  it  is  scarcely  necessary 
to  observe,  that  the  man  was  from  that  hour 
forbidden  to  come  near  his  person,  and  soon 
afterwards  was  discharged. 

The  effects  of  education  on  first-rate  talent  shine 
forth  when  little  expected,  as  was  the  case  with  this 
extraordinary  man,  even  when  his  mental  aberrations 
were  nearly  at  their  height.  In  one  of  his  paroxysms 
he  talked  eight  and  forty  hours  without  ceasing,  and, 
as  it  may  be  supposed  under  such  violent  excitement, 
a  recollection  of  last  year's  clouds  would  not  be  more 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  139 

difficult  than  a  record  of  the  unconnected  jargon 
which  he  at  that  time  uttered.  But  in  his  calmer 
moments,  when  he  saw  me  by  his  bed-side, 
he  would  quote  Greek  and  Latin  authors  with 
surprising  readiness,  and  when  he  found  he 
was  incorrect  would  pause  until  he  recovered 
the  text.  In  several  of  these  quotations  it  was 
beyond  doubt  apparent,  that  the  bereavement 
of  his  family  and  the  desolation  of  Halston 
were  present  to  his  mind ;  for  in  some  particular 
instances  I  could  not  be  mistaken.  In  giving  that 
beautiful  passage  from  Sophocles,  wherein  (Edipus 
recommends  his  children  to  the  care  of  Creon, 
I  am  quite  certain  he  was  applying  it  in  his 
mind  to  the  first-named  calamity  ;  and  an  epigram 
from  the  Greek  Anthologia,  on  the  fall  of  Troy 
and  the  death  of  Hector,  which  he  would  very 
often  repeat,  had  a  sympathetic  allusion  to  the 
ruin  at  Halston  and  his  own  fall.  But  the  following 
criticism  could  scarcely  have  been  expected  from  a 
mind  in  ruins.  In  reply  to  the  numerous  messages  he 
would  send  to  the  bar  of  his  hotel,  some  answer  was 
generally  to  be  manufactured,  and  "  master  has  not 
got  such  a  thing  in  the  house,"  was  by  no  means  an 
uncommon  one.  It  happened  one  day,  however,  that 
the  attendant  in  waiting  brought  him  what  he  had 
sent  him  for,  but  delivered  it  into  his  hands  with  the 
usual  announcement — "  Mr.   Roberts  hasn't  got  no 


140  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

such  thing,  sir," — he  having  procured  it  elsewhere. 
"  Why,"  said  Mytton,  looking  the  man  in  the 
face,  in  my  presence,  "  you  are  a  Greek."     "  No, 

sir,  I  ar'n't,"  he  replied.     "But  I'll  be if 

you  are  not,"  continued  Mytton,  "for  in  Greek 
two  negatives  make  the  affirmative  stronger ; "  and 
roared  into  his  ear  "  ^wpts  i/xov  ov  Svvacr$e  iroulv 
ovSev,  says  the  Bible."  The  fellow  stared,  and  well 
he  might ;  and  well  indeed  might  Mr.  Mytton's 
uncle  say,  as  he  did  in  his  letter  to  me,  when 
lamenting  his  nephew's  situation  and  contrasting  it 
with  what  it  might  have  been — "Heu,  ubi  lapsus !  " 

But  we  will  bring  this  scene  to  a  close. 
Having  reason  to  believe  that,  either  by  his 
powers  of  eloquence  or  by  the  force  of  that 
sympathy  in  a  British  sailor  for  the  absence  of 
grog,  which  is  inseparable  from  his  character, 
and  will  be  a  formidable  opponent  to  Temper- 
ance Societies  on  the  coast,  he  had  prevailed 
upon  one  or  two  of  these  otherwise  honest  guardians 
to  procure  him  spirits  by  stealth,1  it  was  determined 
by  Mrs.  Mytton,  his  mother, — who  had  for  some  time 
been  in  painful  but  unremitting  attendance  on  her  son 
— that  I  should  proceed  to  London  and  state  his  case 

1  He  would  at  this  time  frequently  send  for  eau  de 
Cologne,  under  the  pretext  of  using  it  as  perfume,  or 
otherwise  externally,  on  his  person.  We  soon,  however, 
by  the  quantity  consumed,  ascertained  that  he  drank  it ! 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  141 

to  Dr.  Sutherland,  as,  in  fact,  we  were  making 
no  progress  towards  recovery.  The  result  was 
two  experienced  attendants  being  sent  to  Calais, 
by  whose  skilful  treatment  an  alteration  for 
the  better  was  soon  apparent,  and  their  patient 
able  to  take  his  airings  in  a  carriage.  It  is, 
however,  somewhat  singular  that  the  only  time  that 
it  was  found  necessary  to  put  my  poor  friend  under 
absolute  personal  restraint,  was  during  the  time  I  was 
absent  from  him,  in  London,  and  on  my  return — 
John  Mytton  like — he  spoke  of  it  as  a  very  good  joke. 

The  scene  now  changes  again,  and  somewhat 
of  a  brighter  prospect  appears.  Although  Mr. 
Mytton  had  every  comfort,  as  well  as  every 
convenience  at  the  Royal  Hotel  in  Calais, — 
the  landlord  of  which,  Mr.  Roberts,  is  a  person 
of  superior  education  and  conduct,  and  was 
much  esteemed  by  his  unfortunate  guest — yet  when  it 
was  considered  that  he  had  been  occupying  the  same 
apartments  so  long,  in  sickness  and  in  sorrow,  it 
was  desirable,  on  the  approach  of  spring,  that  he 
should  breathe  a  purer  air,  and  a  chateau  was  looked 
for  in  the  neighbouring  country.  But  here  arose 
a  difficulty.  The  few  persons  who  had  such  things 
to  let  were  alarmed  at  the  idea  of  a  gentleman  and  his 
keepers,  and  fearing  the  occupation  of  them  by  such 
tenants  might  leave  a  stain  on  their  premises,  refused 


i42  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

to  let  them  on  any  terms.  What  then  was  to  be 
done  ?  His  removal  to  England  would  have  been 
his  removal  to  a  prison ;  so,  at  the  request 
of  Mrs.  Mytton,  I  consented  to  hire  a  chateau 
and  to  receive  him  as  an  inmate  until  his 
recovery  was  completed.  But  I  went  beyond 
this :  I  undertook  to  make  a  trial  of  managing 
him  myself,  without  the  aid  of  his  keepers, 
and  the  first  ten  days  bade  fair  for  success.  He 
conformed  to  regular  hours ;  enjoyed  his  meals ; 
did  not  exceed  his  bottle  of  light  wine ;  was, 
I  thought,  never  happier  in  his  life,  and 
the  recruitment  of  his  health  was  beyond  all 
expectation.  But  luckily  for  all  parties,  at  the 
request  of  his  mother,  who  was  gone  to  England, 
his  keepers  still  remained  in  Calais  to  await 
the  issue  of  the  experiment,  for  at  the  end  of 
a  fortnight  he  stole  away  to  Calais  unobserved  ; 
got  at  the  brandy  bottle,  and  then  it  was  all 
over  with  my  "  brief  authority."  It  was  with 
great  difficulty  that  I  could  prevail  on  him  to 
return  to  dinner  for  three  successive  evenings,  and  on 
the  fourth  he  was  outrageous,  threatening  to  murder 
a  gentleman  at  table,  who  had  been  most  kind 
to  him  in  his  illness.  It  then  became  necessary  to 
send  to  Calais  for  his  keepers,  and  by  eight  o'clock 
the  next  morning,  with  the  advice  of  his  doctors,  he 
was  under  their  care. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  143 

Provision  was  made  for  this  somewhat  anticipated 
change.  The  chateau  afforded  ample  accommoda- 
tion for  the  whole  party ;  but  as,  in  all  such  cases, 
it  is  necessary  to  separate  the  patient  from  persons 
and  objects  which  are  sources  of  mental  excitement, 
Mr.  Mytton  and  his  attendants  had  apartments 
separate  from  mine,  and  which  were  arranged  in 
the  most  convenient  manner  for  all  purposes  of 
safety.  The  attendance  of  these  young  men 
acted  like  a  charm  upon  their  patient,  who 
recovered  his  former  serenity  on  being  told  that 
he  was  again  placed  under  the  surveillance  of 
the  police  for  striking  a  Frenchman  in  Calais.  But 
let  all  those  whose  constitutions  are  the  worse  for 
wear  by  indulging  in  midnight  revels,  and  strong 
drink,  and  who  may  take  a  glance  at  the  Life  of 
John  Mytton,  mark  and  digest  what  I  am  now 
about  to  state.  When  he  left  the  town  of  Calais  he 
was  gradually  recovering  his  strength  of  body  and 
mind,  but  was  very  feeble  on  his  legs,  and  could 
scarcely  enter  a  carriage  without  assistance.  He 
had  not  been  at  this  chateau  a  month,  before,  by 
regular  living  and  daily  exercise  in  sea  air,  he  was 
able  to  walk  six  or  seven  miles  in  the  middle  of  the 
day  without  the  slightest  fatigue,  and  to  take  a  walk 
in  the  evening  besides.  His  meals  were  eaten  with 
a  relish,  and  without  the  aid  of  Cayenne  pepper,  to 
the  use  of  which  he  before  knew  no  bounds ;  and 


144  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

his  sleep  was  tranquil  and  refreshing.  Now  me- 
thinks  it  will  be  asked — how  did  he  employ  his 
time  ?  Why,  painful  but  striking  is  the  answer  to 
this  question.  He  to  whom  the  whole  world  had 
appeared  insufficient  to  afford  pleasure,  and  who 
had  spent  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pounds  in  pur- 
suit of  it,  was  now  completely  happy  in  the  occupa- 
tion of  picking  up  sea  shells  in  the  morning  and 
washing  them  in  vinegar  in  the  evening  !  !  So 
eager  was  he  in  this  his  favourite  pursuit,  that  he 
would  scarcely  finish  his  dinner  before  he  would 
enter  upon  the  last-mentioned  office,  and  would 
absolutely  stand  for  two  or  three  hours  at  a  time 
brushing  shells  with  a  nail  brush  dipped  in  vinegar  ! 
They  were  then  laid  with  great  precision  in  drawers, 
which  he  would  never  suffer  any  one  but  himself  to 
open.  All  this,  with  the  perusal  of  the  Morning 
Herald,  the  Age,  and  the  Calais  (French)  Journals, 
formed  the  business  of  the  day. 

It  is  almost  needless  for  me  to  state  that,  at 
this  period,  the  intellect  of  my  friend  was  in  a 
state  of  great  imbecility  —  the  consequence  of 
extreme  exhaustion,  produced  by  extreme  excite- 
ment. Nevertheless  it  was  the  opinion  of  his 
attendants,  as  well  as  of  Drs.  Souville  and 
Winder,  who  saw  him  two  or  three  times  a 
week,  that,  by  pursuing   the  plan  they  were  then 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  145 

acting  upon,  he  would  in  time  recover  his  strength 
of  mind  as  well  as  that  of  his  body ;  and  there  also 
was  a  chance — as  his  old  friend  and  neighbour  in 
his  own  county,  Colonel  Proctor,  then  at  Boulogne, 
observed — of  his  altering  his  former  course  of  life, 
from  the  experience  he  might  have  of  the  benefits 
arising  from  temperance  and  exercise.  But  alas, 
poor  man,  this  chance  was  denied  him.  At  the 
end  of  the  second  month  he  was,  by  false  repre- 
sentations made  to  his  mother,  once  more  let  loose, 
and  from  that  hour  to  the  last  of  his  life  his  poor 
shattered  bark  was  never  out  of  a  sea  of  troubles. 
He  had  nearly  been  suffocated  with  brandy  on 
his  voyage  to  London,  by  the  steamer,  the  day 
after  he  left  the  chateau ;  and,  as  was  evident  to  all 
parties,  so  soon  as  he  was  caught  in  England  he 
would  be  in  a  jail !  Why  then  was  he  taken 
to  England  ?  and  why  was  his  life  thus  suffered 
to  be  sacrificed  ?  Why,  merely  to  enable  him 
to  sign  deeds  conveying  away  the  last  remain- 
ing acre  of  his  unentailed  property,  which  he 
could  not  do  when  in  the  situation  from 
which  he  was  taken,  and  which,  it  appears, 
when  done,  did  not  secure  his  person  from 
the  griping  fangs  of  the  law.  He  did  sign  them, 
however,  and  his  own  death  warrant  by  the  same 
act  and  deed.  There  might  be  other  reasons  for 
getting  him  to  England,  which  it  may  perhaps  be 


146  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

unsafe  for  me  to  commit  to  paper ;  to  my  mind 
they  were  conclusive. 

I  shall  take  but  a  bird's  eye  view  of  his 
career  in  England,  but,  carrying  on  the  alle- 
gory, we  may  compare  his  situation  to  that  of 
small  birds  pursued  by  hawks.  Every  bailiff 
in  London  was  on  the  look  out  for  him  ;  and, 
above  all  places  in  the  world,  he  went  to 
Halston  to  avoid  them !  Oh,  what  must  have 
been  his  feelings  on  the  first  view  of  his  deserted 
hall — the  scene  of  all  his  former  splendour  !  They 
must  have  somewhat  resembled  those  of  "  The 
Last  Man,"  when  viewing  the  capitals  of  the 
world,  and  himself  alone  left  to  mourn  over 
them ;  but  as  they  are  incommunicable  by  words, 
I  leave  them  to  the  imagination  and  likewise  to  the 
sympathy  of  the  reader. 

("Such  a  house  broke! 
So  noble  a  master  fallen  !     All  gone  !    and  not 
One  friend  to  take  his  fortune  by  the  arm, 
And  go  along  with  him  ;  ") 

Let  us  hope,  however,  that  he  was  neither 
sober  nor  in  his  senses  —  at  all  events,  that 
some  respite  was  in  mercy  granted  to  his 
intellectual  faculties,  as  a  guard  to  his  heart, 
from  the  assaults  of  sufferings  that  might  other- 
wise  have   been   beyond   man's  nature  to  endure ! 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  147 

But  his  stay  here  was  short ;  he  was  hurried 
off  to  Shrewsbury  jail,  whence,  in  the  course  of 
time,  he  was  removed  to  the  King's  Bench  prison, 
in  London. 

Now  here  again  comes  "  John  Mytton "  ! 
During  his  sojourn  in  the  first-named  prison  he  was 
visited  by  several  of  his  old  friends, — influential 
gentlemen  in  the  county — who  offered  their 
services  in  arranging  his  difficulties,  provided 
he  would  put  his  affairs  into  their  trust,  but 
he  rejected  all  their  overtures.  Either  Caesar 
or  nobody  he  was  resolved  to  be  so  long  as  he 
was  above  ground,  and  how  exactly  did  he  come 
under  that  denomination  of  persons  of  whom  Horace 
speaks, 

"  Quern  neque  pauperies,  neque  mors,   neque  vincula 
terrent ; " 

and  how  plumply  did  he  give  the  lie  to  the  adage, 
that  adversity  is  the  school  of  reform.  The  toad 
was  ugly  and  venomous  ;  but  he  saw  no  "  precious 
jewel  in  his  head." 

But  there  was  something  savouring  of  the  serio- 
romantic  in  Mr.  Mytton's  being  placed  in  durance,  for 
debt,  in  the  prison  of  a  town  with  which  the  deeds  of 
his  ancestors  were  so  deeply  and  brilliantly  associated 


148  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

— in  a  town  in  which  his  word  would  but  a 
short  time  before  have  been  good  for  ten 
thousand  pounds,  and  in  which  he  once  sat  high 
in  the  people's  hearts ;  and  also  in  relation  to  the 
altered  situation  in  which  he  himself  once 
stood  towards  the  keeper  of  that  prison.  The 
governorship  becoming  vacant,  the  contest  for  it 
was  a  severe  one,  and  it  was  solely  by  the  influence 
and  exertions  of  Mr.  Mytton  that  the  present 
person,  Mr.  Griffiths,  fills  it.  He,  however,  not 
only  has  done  credit  but  honour  to  his  benefactor's 
choice, — as  no  man  in  Shrewsbury  is,  I  believe, 
more  respected  than  he  is,  neither  can  any  man 
exceed  him  in  the  various  and  arduous  duties  he 
has  to  perform,  tempering  mercy  with  justice ;  and 
although  Shakespeare  says,  "  seldom  when  the 
steeled  gaoler  is  the  friend  of  man,"  Mr.  Griffiths 
was  unceasing  in  his  kind  attention  to  his 
patron,  now  become  his  prisoner.  Indeed  Mr. 
Mytton  not  only  acknowledged  this  to  me,  but 
told  me  he  was  very  comfortable  in  Shrewsbury 
gaol ! 

On  a  writ  of  certiorari  being  executed,  my  poor 
degraded  friend  was  conveyed  to  London  in  the  cus- 
tody of  Mr.  Griffiths,  and  transferred  to  that  of  the 
Marshal  of  the  King's  Bench,  where  I  saw  him  for 
the  first  time  since  he  left  the  chateau  in  France. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  149 

But  what  a  change  for  the  worse  was  here  !  He 
was  the  same  bloated,  unhealthy-looking,  son  of 
Bacchus  that  he  appeared  on  his  arrival  in  Calais, 
and  he  had  a  leg  in  a  state  nearly  approaching 
mortification.  In  fact,  his  surgeon  told  me  he 
would  owe  his  life — at  all  events  the  preservation 
of  his  leg — solely  to  the  kindness  of  a  fellow 
prisoner,  who  prevented  his  drinking  spirits,  and 
such  no  doubt  was  the  case. 

I  am  not  able  to  say  how  long  he  remained 
in  the  Bench,  but  on  his  exit  John  Mytton — 
unus  ex  omnibus — appears  again ;  but  to  what 
account  shall  we  place  the  act  I  am  about 
to  mention,  for  it  appears  to  me  to  want  a 
name  ?  It  is  not,  however,  without  a  plea. 
The  heart  of  man  has  been  elegantly  compared  to 
a  creeping  plant,  which  withers  unless  it  have 
something  around  which  it  can  entwine ;  but 
towards  what  a  frail  trellage  did  that  of  this 
extraordinary  man  yearn  for  its  support !  Walking 
one  day  over  Westminster- bridge,  the  following 
dialogue  occurred  between  himself  and  a  female  of 
a  class  which  the  reader  will  not  be  at  a  loss  to 
name,  but  on  whom  he  had  never  before  set  his 
eyes. 

Mr.  Mytton.   "  How  do  ye  do  ?  " 


150  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

The  Female.  "  Very  well,  I  thank  ye ;  how  do 
you  do  ? " 

Mr.  Mytton.   "  Where  are  you  going  ?  " 

The  Female.  "I  don't  know." 

Mr.  Mytton.  "  Then  come  and  live  with  me  ? 
I'll  settle  ^500  a  year  upon  you." 

Here  was  no  law's  delay ;  no  worm  in  the  bud  ; 
no  concealment  feeding  on  the  damask  cheek,  but 
love  at  first  sight,  if  any  love  there  was  !  The 
bargain  being  struck,  the  broomstick  jumped  over, 
the  happy  couple  soon  afterwards  arrived  at  Calais, 
at  the  Crown  Hotel ;  Mr.  Roberts,  under  such 
circumstances,  being  compelled  to  decline  the 
honour  of  their  company.  But  the  strangest  part 
of  the  affair  is  to  come.  This  young  woman, 
then  only  in  her  twentieth  year,  whom  no 
doubt  some  scoundrel  had  seduced  and  aban- 
doned, was  not  only  possessed  of  considerable 
personal  charms,  but  proved  to  be  very  respectably 
connected,1  and  conducted  herself  towards  her  pro- 

1  The  late  Lord  Arundel,  who  was  at  this  time  sojourning 
at  the  Royal  Hotel,  on  his  road  to  Italy,  confirmed  to  me 
the  respectability  of  her  connexions  on  hearing  their 
names   mentioned. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  151 

tector  so  much  better  than  could  be  expected, 
considering  whence  she  was  imported,  and  that 
his  lusty  love  had  gone  "  in  quest  of  beauty  "  and 
not  "  in  search  of  virtue,"  that  I  saw  a  letter  to 
her  from  his  mother  acknowledging  her  kindness 
towards  her  son.  But  wife  or  mistress  made  no 
difference  with  Mytton.  If  he  were  not,  generally 
speaking,  a  madman  to  a  certain  extent,  on  the 
subject  of  a  woman — and,  above  all,  of  a  ivoman  he 
loved — he  was  a  monomaniac,  and  some  extra- 
ordinary scenes  were  the  fruits  of  this  extraordinary 
connexion.  The  green  -  eyed  monster  played  his 
part  as  usual,  and  at  times  a  nod  or  a  look  was 
suspicion  strong  as  holy  writ. 

I  must  hark  back  here  for  a  moment.  On  the 
morrow  after  Mr.  Mytton  arrived  from  London, 
he  was  arrested  for  £2$  at  the  suit  of  the  holder 
of  one  bill  out  of  four  for  ^"25  each,  which  he 
had  been  most  improperly  induced  to  accept  in 
favour  of  a  person  resident  in  Calais,  who  had  not 
the  slightest  claim  upon  his  liberality,  and  conveyed 
to  the  prison  of  the  town.  His  solicitor  being 
then  with  him,  there  was  no  difficulty  in  releasing 
him  to  the  extent  of  that  individual  sum,  but  it 
was  considered  expedient  to  detain  him  in 
custody  until  it  could  be  ascertained  what  was 
become     of     the     three     other    bills ;     when    it 


152  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

was  at  length  agreed  that  two  of  them  should  be 
given  up,  and  that  his  liability  only  extended  to 
^50.  Here  then  will  appear  the  character  of 
the  kind-hearted  John  Mytton,  in  its  true  light. 
Almost  any  man  but  himself  would  have  been 
outrageous  at  this  breach  of  confidence  and  good 
feeling,  but  not  so  John  Mytton.  The  first  step 
he  took  after  his  release  from  the  prison,  was  to 
call  upon  the  person  who  had  caused  him  to  be  thus 
disgraced,  and  to  walk  arm  in  arm  with  him  on 
the  market-place — lest,  as  he  said,  the  affair  might 
injure  his  character  in  the  town,  he  being  a  pro- 
fessional man.  Reader ;  I'll  bar  you  from  one 
book,  and  one  book  alone ;  you  shall  then  search 
the  pages  of  ancient  and  modern  history,  and  I 
challenge  you  to  produce  me  a  nobler  instance  of  a 
nobler  heart  than  the  one  I  have  now  given  you. 
The  power  of  bearing  and  forbearing,  which  con- 
stituted Epictetus's  wise  man,  comes,  perhaps,  next 
to  it  in  theory. 

But  the  storm  soon  gathers  again.  After  sojourn- 
ing a  certain  time  at  the  Crown  Hotel,  in  Calais,  with 
a  score  to  his  name  of  a  thousand  francs,  he  came  to 
my  house  in  the  country  to  inform  me  he  should  go 
to  England  on  the  morrow.  It  was  in  vain  that  I  told 
him  he  could  not  do  so  without  first  paying  his  bill, 
which  I  knew  he  had  not,  at  that  time,  the  means  of 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  153 

doing.  He,  however,  put  himself  into  the 
Boulogne  coach  the  next  afternoon,  meaning  to 
embark  from  that  town — having,  perhaps  fortun- 
ately, informed  the  barber  who  shaved  him  of  his 
intentions,  which  intentions  the  barber  of  course 
conveyed  instanter  to  the  landlord  —  and  the 
following  day  found  him  in  Boulogne  jail.  Also 
luckily  for  him,  his  agent  arrived  the  same  day, 
but  his  creditor  had  previously  agreed  to  release 
him,  on  an  undertaking  from  Mr.  Roberts,  of  the 
Royal  Hotel,  and  myself  to  bring  him  back  to 
Calais.  The  distraining  landlord  has  since  paid 
the  debt  of  nature ;  but  he  was  quite  free  from 
blame  with  regard  to  the  steps  he  pursued ;  and 
Mr.  Mytton  was  kind  as  usual  to  him  on  his 
return. 

Shortly  after  this,  Mr.  Mytton  and  his  chere 
amie  took  their  departure  for  Lisle  ;  but  what  they 
did  at  Lisle  I  did  not  trouble  myself  to  inquire. 
Their  return  to  Calais,  however,  forms  another 
interesting  scene  in  this  —  I  know  not  what  to 
call  it,  but  perhaps  the  ancient  Greeks  would  have 
called  it — Spafia  tov  (3iov,  or  comedy  of  life.  Just 
as  I  was  sitting  down  to  dinner  one  evening  of  a 
very  hot  day  in  August,  I  espied  a  person  at  the 
bottom  of  my  avenue,  approaching  my  house 
on   foot.     "  Is   it  possible,"  said  I,  "  that  person 


i54  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

can  be  Mytton  ? "  Mytton,  however,  it  was ; 
and  shall  I  ever  forget  the  state  he  was  in — 
shirtless,  waistcoatless,  neckclothless,  with  his 
trousers  and  coat  stained  with  blood,  as  well  as 
in  a  state  of  very  great  exhaustion  from  fatigue  ? 
Now  then  for  his  account  of  himself.  He  had 
set  forward,  it  appeared,  in  a  diligence  from  Lisle 
to  Calais,  but  had  quarrelled  with  Susan  (his 
chere  amie's  name)  at  St.  Omer,  and  refused  to 
proceed  in  her  company  any  further.  When  she 
left  him  behind  at  St.  Omer  to  proceed  to  Calais, 
he  had  nearly  four  napoleons  in  his  pocket ;  but 
getting  into  a  street-row  in  that  town,  he  had  been 
well  licked  and  robbed1  of  all  save  three  Belgic 
sous.  With  this  small  sum  he  started  to  walk  to 
Calais,  twenty  -  seven  long  miles,  and  under  a 
burning  sun ;  but  becoming  dead  beat  before  the 
sun  set,  he  put  up  at  a  small  public  -  house,  or 
cabaret,  by  the  road  side,  and  the  account  he  gave 
of  his  proceedings  in  it,  was  a  most  ludicrous  one. 
He  wheedled  the  old  woman,  he  said,  out  of  some 
supper ;  but  then  what  was  to  be  done  for  some- 
thing to  drink  ?  "  Why,"  continued  he,  "  I  can  leave 
part  of  my  clothes  in  pawn  in  the  morning,  so  got 
two  glasses  of  gin  and  water,  gin  being  cheaper  than 
brandy."      On  refreshing  himself  at  my  house,  and 

1  I  should  rather  say  he  had  lost  this  money  out  of  his 
pocket. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  155 

putting  his  person  into  something  like  a  decent 
condition,  he  walked  into  Calais,  and  made  it  up 
with  Susan. 

The  comedy  is  now  at  end  —  at  least  for  the 
present  —  and  something  very  like  a  tragedy 
succeeds  to  it.  Poor  Mytton  was,  a  few  days 
after,  again  arrested  for  ^200,  being  the  amount 
of  the  score  he  had  run  up  at  a  certain  French 
hotel  in  London,  where  himself  and  his  partner 
had  been  sojourning  after  the  bargain  had  been 
struck  on  the  bridge,  and  from  whence  he  had 
been  obliged  to  bolt  in  a  hurry,  as  the  bailiffs  were 
in  the  house  in  pursuit  of  him.  But  the  landlord, 
being  a  Frenchman,  had  recourse  to  the  privileges 
of  a  Frenchman,  and  I  once  more  was  pained  by 
seeing  my  friend  looking  through  the  bars  of  a 
French  prison  window.  Here  he  was  suffered  to 
remain — the  why  and  the  wherefore  can  only  be 
answered  by  his  solicitors  in  London,  as  the  sale  of 
his  estates  had  been  completed — for  fourteen  days  ; 
on  the  thirteenth  day,  I  thought  it  my  duty  to 
inform  his  mother  of  his  situation ;  and  in  four 
days  from  the  date  of  my  letter  she  was  in  Calais. 
It  would  be  painful  to  me  to  relate,  as  well  as  to 
my  readers  to  be  made  acquainted  with,  a  detail 
of  the  acts  and  deeds  of  this  unhappy  man  during 
the   rest  of  the    time    he   spent  in    Calais,  where 


156  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

his  mother  remained  to  protect  him  as  far  as  it  was 
in  her  power  to  do  so.  But  it  was  brandy,  brandy, 
brandy,  morning,  noon,  and  night,  which  of  course 
drove  him  to  madness  ;  and  a  disposition  to  insult 
the  French  people,  made  it  necessary  to  remove 
him.  England  was  again  determined  upon,  where 
not  only  a  prison,  but  the  grave,  yawned  to  receive 
him,  and  in  a  prison  he  died.  Thus  fell  John 
Mytton  —  by  nature,  what  God  must  have  in- 
tended every  man  should  be ;  by  education,  or, 
rather,  from  the  want  of  proper  education,  nearly 
at  last  what  man  should  not  be.  The  seed  was 
good  ;  but  it  fell  among  thorns  and  was  choked. 

So  soon  as  I  was  informed  that  Mr.  Mytton  was 
once  more  within  the  walls  of  the  King's  Bench 
Prison,  I  felt  assured  he  would  never  quit  them  but 
on  his  bier,  neither  did  he.     But  as  the  poet  says — 

"  Better  to  sink  beneath  the  shock, 
Than  moulder  piece-meal  on  the  rock ; " 

and  I  was  happy  when  I  heard  the  fatal  subpoena 
had  arrived,  for  adversity  had  exhausted  her 
phial,  and  it  was  evident  that,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  unsubdued  affection  of  his  mother, 
there  was,  for  him,  no  balm  in  Gilead.  It 
appeared  that  in  about  three  weeks  after  his 
incarceration,  he  was  seized  with  paralysis  of  the 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  157 

extremities,  which  bade  defiance  to  the  treatment 
of  Doctor  Maton  and  Mr.  Brodie,  who  indeed 
from  the  first  considered  it  a  case  without  hopes. 
It  may  be,  however,  a  consolation  to  those  who 
had  a  regard  for  him,  to  learn  that  his  sufferings 
were  not  severe ;  that  his  mother  was  by  his  bed- 
side at  the  last,  and  that  as  he  had  been  conversing 
rationally  with  his  medical  attendants  within  half  an 
hour  of  his  decease,  his  life  must  have  departed  like 
the  flickering  flame  of  a  lamp  which  goes  out  by 
the  last  crackle.  But  it  is  astounding  to  think, 
from  the  rapidity  with  which  his  lamp  of  life  must 
have  burned,  that  he  lived  to  complete  his  thirty- 
eighth  year.  As  I  said  of  him  before,  Nil  violentum 
est  perpeluum  ;  Phaeton's  car  went  but  a  day  ! 

A  brother  sportsman  and  a  brother  prisoner 
(well  known  at  Melton  Mowbray)  who,  as  I 
have  before  mentioned,  had  been  extremely  kind 
to  my  poor  friend  during  his  first  and  second 
incarceration,  and  who  was  a  constant  attendant 
on  his  sick  bed,  wrote  me  —  unsolicited  —  some 
interesting  particulars  relating  to  his  illness  and  the 
last  scenes  of  his  eventful  life,  which  it  gives  me 
pleasure  to  make  known.  The  "  virtue  of  suffering 
well,"  which  Johnson  allowed  to  Savage,  could  by 
no  one  be  denied  to  Mytton,  whose  bearing  and 
forbearing,    as    I     have    before    shown,    are    per- 


158  LTFE  OF  MYTTON 

haps  not  exceeded  by  any  man's ;  but  in  the 
opinion  of  his  friend  he  took  much  to  heart  this 
second  confinement  in  the  King's  Bench,  although 
his  proud  spirit  would  not  suffer  him  to  acknow- 
ledge it ;  and  he  thought  it  hastened  his  end.  As 
to  his  dying  in  peace  with  all  mankind,  how  could 
he  die  otherwise  who  never  attempted  to  revenge 
himself  on  any  human  being,  but  who  —  though 
his  communication  was  not  "  Yea,  yea,  or  nay, 
nay" — so  far  from  demanding  the  eye  for  the 
eye,  and  the  tooth  for  the  tooth,  would  have 
actually  given  his  cloak  to  him  who  stole  his 
coat — whose  heart  was  as  warm  as  those  of  half 
the  world  are  cold ;  and  whose  warmth  of  heart 
had  brought  him  into  the  prison  in  which  he 
died  !  And  how  did  he  die  ? — As  he  appeared 
to  live  —  in  dread  of  nothing  human  or  divine  ? 
Certainly  not ;  although  it  may,  tauntingly,  be  said, 
he  trusted  to  the  delusive  support  of  a  death- 
bed repentance.  Let  no  man,  however,  venture  to 
pronounce  sentence  here,  but  leave  it  to  that  bar 
at  which  justice  will  be  tempered  with  mercy ; 
where,  unless  I  formed  a  very  erroneous  opinion 
of  the  late  Mr.  Mytton  —  and  who  had  a  much 
more  intimate  knowledge  of  him  than  myself? — 
and  a  still  more  mistaken  one  of  the  attributes 
of  Him  by  whom  he  will  be  judged,  he  will 
find    acceptance    before    many    who    have   carried 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  159 

a  much  fairer  face  to  the  world.  Few  receive 
the  white  garment  and  carry  it  without  a  stain 
before  the  judgment-seat.  John  Mytton  certainly 
did  not :  it  was  soiled  and  stained  with  the 
impurities  of  our  nature  —  with  even  more  than 
can  be  placed  to  that  account — and  the  world 
has  no  proof  that  they  were  attempted  to  be 
washed  out  by  his  tears ;  but  I  appeal  to  my  own 
experience  of  him — to  that  of  his  brother  prisoner 
and  friend  who  attended  him  in  his  last  days — in 
the  hour  indeed  when  the  heart  knows  no  guile, 
and  in  which  the  tongue  seldom  hazards  an 
untruth,  whether  he  did  not  then  own  to  man, 
what  he  had  previously  only  owned  to  his  God. 
Although  it  appears  he  did  not  consider  his  life 
in  imminent  danger,  he  had  the  church  service 
read  to  him  nearly  every  day,  and  more  particu- 
larly on  Good  Friday,  when  he  held  a  long 
conversation  with  his  brother  prisoner  on  the 
sacrament,  but  which,  although  he  expressed 
himself  very  properly  in  his  allusions  to  it,  it  does 
not  appear  he  partook  of.  Of  both  his  wives  he 
spoke  in  the  tenderest  terms  of  affection,  as  also  of 
his  children  by  each,  and  expressed  a  strong  desire  to 
see  his  present  wife  and  all  his  children  together — but 
alas  !  that  wish  was  a  vain  one.  Immediately  after 
his  decease,  a  cast  was  taken  of  his  features  by  the 
celebrated  phrenologist,  M.  Deville,  in  the  Strand,  at 


160  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

the  express  request  of  his  mother,  in  which  /'/  It  said 
the  character  of  the  man  is  very  clearly  developed. 

The  first  public  notice  of  his  decease  that  reached 
this  country  was  contained  in  a  very  neatly  written 
paragraph  in  the  Globe,  in  which  the  following 
short,  but  just  character  was  given  him : — "  His 
princely  magnificence  and  eccentric  gaieties 
obtained  him  great  notoriety  in  the  sporting  and 
gay  circles,  both  in  England  and  on  the  Continent. 
His  failings,  which  leaned  to  virtue's  side,  greatly 
reduced  him,  and  he  has  left  numerous  friends  to 
lament  the  melancholy  fact  of  his  dying  in  a  prison, 
which,  contrasted  with  his  former  splendour, 
furnishes  a  striking  illustration  of  the  mutability 
of  mundane  affairs."  This  account  went  the 
round  of  the  papers,  with  the  exception  of  Bell's 
Life  in  London,  which  inadvertently  stated  that 
he  had  spent  the  fortunes  of  two  wives,  but  which 
the  editor  immediately  contradicted  on  my  author- 
ity. That  of  his  first,  which  was  ten  thousand 
pounds,  was  settled  on  his  only  daughter  by  her ; 
what  his  second  wife's  fortune  was,  I  never  heard, 
but  whatever  it  might  have  been,  I  have  reason 
to  believe  it  remains  for  the  benefit  of  his  younger 
children. 

It  is  too  much  the  practice  of  the  world — at  least  so 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  161 

says  the  satire — to  adore  the  rising  sun,  and  to  con- 
demn him  when  going  down ;  but  neither  errors 
nor  crimes  (if  such,  reader,  you  will  have  them) 
nor  adversity,  could  chill  the  grateful  recollection 
of  the  splendour  that  had  once  illumined  Halston, 
and  of  the  many,  otherwise,  perhaps,  sad  hearts 
which  had  been  warmed  by  its  genial  rays.  But 
even  independent  of  this,  there  was  a  tenderness 
and  compassion  of  nature  in  both  the  sayings  and 
doings  of  poor  John  Mytton,  which  had  fixed  him 
firmly  in  the  hearts  and  affections  of  the  people 
within  many  miles  of  his  house,  and  there  he 
remained  fixed  to  the  last.  In  proof  of  this,  his 
funeral  excited  very  general,  indeed,  I  might  say, 
almost  unequalled  sympathy.  The  amazing  number 
of  three  thousand  persons  were  present  at  it — several 
appearing  unable  to  stifle  their  feelings,  and  only 
obtaining  relief  by  their  tears.  And  what  brought 
together  this  assemblage  of  persons  of  all  conditions, 
even  to  the  poorest  ?     Not,  as  Shakespeare  says,  to 

" tender  down 

Their  services  to  Lord  Timon  ;  his  large  fortune, 
Upon  his  good  and  gracious  nature  hanging." 

No — but  to  shed  a  tear  on  the  bier  of  a  man  whose 
"  large  fortune  "  and  whose  "  gracious  nature  "  were 
no  more ;  of  a  man  who  had  died  in  a  jail ;  of  one 


1 62  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

who,  with  "all  his  imperfections  on  his  head," 
would  never  die  in  their  hearts  or  memory !  But 
no  more  of  this.  The  subject  is  too  painful  to 
dwell  on  ;  and  I  should  be  untrue  to  myself  if  I  did 
not  admit,  that  my  own  tears  would  have  mingled 
with  those  shed  over  the  grave  of  John  Mytton, 
and  that  they  have  more  than  once  mingled  with 
the  ink  which  has  traced  his  devious  course  and 
marked  his  miserable  end. 

The  following  account  of  the  funeral  appeared  in 
the  Shrewsbury  Chronicle  : — 

"FUNERAL  OF 
THE  LATE  JOHN  MYTTON,  Esq. 

"  We  last  week  announced  the  death  of  this 
gentleman.  His  body  was  conveyed  from  London, 
where  he  expired,  to  this  town,  with  all  solemnity. 
On  passing  through  the  town,  many  of  the  shops 
were  closed ;  and  crowds  assembled  to  take  a  last 
look  on  his  bier,  and  pay  the  homage  of  a  sigh 
to  the  memory  of  John  Mytton.  We  rejoice  to 
say  that,  before  his  death  the  consolations  of 
religion  had  been  eagerly  resorted  to,  and  afforded 
him  both  comfort  under  affliction,  and  hope  in  the 
prospect  of  eternity. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  T63 

"A  hearse  with  four  horses  (driven  by  an 
attached  servant  of  the  deceased),  a  mourning 
coach  and  four,  and  another  carriage  formed  the 
melancholy  cavalcade  through  Shrewsbury.  On 
the  road  to  Oswestry,  every  mark  of  respect  was 
paid ;  and  at  the  Queen's  Head,  the  corpse  was 
met  by  a  detachment  of  the  North  Shropshire 
Cavalry  (of  which  regiment  the  deceased  was 
Major)  who  escorted  them  to  the  vault  in  the 
Chapel  of  Halston,  where  the  remains  were  de- 
posited at  three  o'clock  on  Wednesday  afternoon. 
The  procession  was  exceedingly  well  arranged 
under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Dunn,  of  London, 
assisted  by  Messrs.  Hanmer  and  Gittins,  of  this 
town,  and  entered  the  domain  of  Halston  in  the 
following  order : — 

Four  Trumpeters  of  the  North  Shropshire  Cavalry. 

Capt.  Croxon  and  Capt.  Jones. 

Thirty-two  Members  of  the  Cavalry. 

A  Standard  of  the  Regiment  covered  with  Crape. 

Forty-two  Members  of  the  Cavalry. 

Adjutant  Shirley  and  Cornet  Nicolls. 

Mr.  Dunn  (undertaker)  and  Mr.  Gittins. 

Two  Mutes. 

Carriage  of  the  Revds.  W.  Jones  and  J.  D.  Pigott. 

Two  Mourning  Coaches  and  Four,  with  the 

Pall-Bearers. 

Hon.  T.  Kenyon.  A.  W.  Corbett,  Esq. 

R.  A.  Slaney,  Esq.,  M.P.  J.  R.  Kynaston,  Esq. 

J.  C.  Pelham,  Esq.  Rev.  H.  C.  Cotton. 

The  Hearse,  drawn  by  Four  Horses,  with 


i64  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

THE  BODY, 

In  a  Coffin   covered  with   Black   Velvet,  with   massive 

Handles  richly  ornamented,  the  Plate  inscribed 

'  John  Mytton,  Esq.  of  Halston, 

'Born  30th  of  Sept.,  1796, 

'Died  29th  of  March,  1834.' 

(The  Hearse  was  driven  by  Mr.  Bowyer,  the  Deceased's 

Coachman,  who,  with  Mr.  M'Dougal,  another  Servant, 

attended  him  in  his  last  moments). 

Mourning  Coach  with  two  Mourners,  the  Rev.  E.  H.  Owen 

(Deceased's  Uncle),  and  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  R.  Noel  Hill. 

Mrs.  Mytton's  Carriage. 

Lady  Kynaston's  Carriage,  with  Mr.  W.  H.  Griffiths 

and  Mr.  Cooper. 

Carriage  of  A.  W.  Corbett,  Esq. 

Carriage  of  the  Rev.  Sir  Edward  Kynaston,  Bart. 

Carriage  of  the  Rev.  E.  H.  Owen. 

Carriage  of  R.  A.  Slaney,  Esq.,  M.P. 

Carriage  and  Four  of  the  Hon.  Thomas  Kenyon. 

J.  Beck,  Esq.,  in  his  Carriage. 

Dr.  Cockerill  and  Lieut.  Tudor,  in  Carriage. 

Carriage  of  T.  N.  Parker,  Esq. 

Carriage  of  W.  Ormsby  Gore,  Esq.,  M.P. 

Carriage  of  the  Viscountess  Avonmore, 

Several  Cars,  &c,  with  friends. 

Mr.  Broughall,  Agent. 

About  One  Hundred  of  the  Tenantry,  Tradesmen,  and 

Friends  on  Horseback,  closed  the  procession.     Among 

these    were    Messrs.    Longueville,    Cartwright,    Bolas, 

Hughes,  J.  Howell,  S.    Windsor,  J.   Williams,  Morris, 

Griffiths,    Venables,     D.     Thomas,     W.     Francis,     R. 

Edwards,  Farr,  Blandford,  Rogers,  Davies,  &c.  &c. 

The  Mutes  were  old  men,  brothers,  John  and  Edward 
Niccolas,of  Whittington ;  the  latter  was  mute  at  the  funeral 
of  the  deceased's  grandfather  ;  John  was  mute  at  the  grand- 
father's funeral,  the  father's  funeral,  and  at  that  of  Mr. 
Mytton. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  165 

"  A  mourning  peal  was  rung  at  Oswestry,  and 
the  bells  of  Shrewsbury,  Ellesmere,  Whittington, 
Halston,  &c,  tolled  during  the  day.  The  number 
of  spectators  was  immense,  and  the  road  along 
which  the  procession  slowly  moved  was  bedewed 
with  the  tears  of  thousands  who  wished  to  have 
a  last  glance.  Everything  was  conducted  with 
the  greatest  order ;  but  there  was  a  great  rush  to 
enter  the  chapel  on  the  body  being  taken  out  of 
the  hearse.  The  body  was  placed  in  a  shelf  in 
the  family  vault,  under  the  communion  table  of 
Halston  Chapel,  surrounded  by  the  coffins  of  twelve 
of  his  relatives." 

The  family  of  Mytton,  as  has  already  been 
shown,  is  an  ancient  one  ;  and  the  inhabitants  of 
Shropshire  and  Wales  are  attached  to  it  from 
many  old  historical,  personal,  and  feudal  recollec- 
tions. Halston  is  called  in  ancient  deeds  Haly 
Stone  or  Holy  Stone.  Near  it  stood  the  abbey, 
taken  down  above  a  century  ago.  Meyric  Lloyd, 
Lord  of  some  part  of  Uch  Ales,  in  the  reign 
of  Richard  I.  would  not  yield  subjection  to  the 
English  government,  under  which  the  hundred 
of  Dyffryn  Clwyd,  and  several  others  were 
then  ;  and  having  taken  some  English  officers  that 
came  there  to  execute  the  law,  killed  several  of 
them.     For  this  fact  he  forfeited  his  lands  to  the 


1 66  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

king ;  fled,  and  took  sanctuary  at  Halston,  where 
he  was  taken  to  the  protection  of  its  possessor, 
John  Fitzalen,  Earl  of  Arundel.  In  the  Saxon 
era,  the  lordship  of  Halston  belonged  to  Edrio ; 
at  which  time  there  were  on  it  two  Welchmen  and 
one  Frenchman.  After  the  Norman  Conquest, 
Halston  became  the  property  of  an  Earl  of  Arundel, 
and  was  given  by  that  family  to  the  Knights  of  St. 
John  of  Jerusalem. — In  the  26th  of  Henry  VIII. 
the  commandry  was  valued  at  £  160  14J.  lod.  a 
year.  Upon  the  abolition  of  many  of  the  military 
religious  orders,  Henry  VIII.  empowered  John 
Sewster,  Esq.  to  dispose  of  this  manor  to  Alan 
Horde,  who  made  an  exchange  with  Edward 
Mytton,  Esq.  of  Habberley  ;  which  alienation  was 
afterwards  confirmed  by  Queen  Elizabeth.  The 
church  or  chapel  of  Halston,  is  a  donative,  with- 
out any  other  revenue  than  what  the  chaplain  is 
allowed  by  the  owner,  and  is  exempt  of  jurisdiction. 
Halston  was  the  birth-place  of  the  famous  General 
Mytton. 

Immediately  after  the  funeral  his  last  will  was  read, 
in  which  he  had  bequeathed  all  that  he  had  to  leave 
equally  amongst  all  his  children,  and  to  which  the 
Hon.  Thomas  Kenyon,  of  Pradoe,  near  Oswestry, 
and  R.  A.  Slaney,  Esq.,  M.P.  for  Shrewsbury,  were 
appointed  executors.     He  had  previously,  at  Calais, 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  167 

made  a  will  to  which  Sir  Edward  Smythe,  Mr. 
Owen,  of  Woodhouse,  Shropshire  (his  uncle), 
and  myself,  were  appointed  executors,  in  which 
his  all  was  left  to  his  only  child  by  his  first 
wife.  The  alteration,  however,  was  immaterial, 
his  "  all,"  poor  fellow,  that  is  to  say,  his  dis- 
posable personal  property,  being  nothing ;  but 
it  is  consoling  to  think  that  estates  amount- 
ing to  ^4,500  per  annum  were  out  of  his 
reach,  by  entail,  and  still  remain  to  his  family. 
Thus  is  it  possible,  that  by  the  aid  of  a  ten 
years'  minority,  and,  barring  another  "  JohnMytton," 
Halston  and  its  oaks x  may  yet  flourish.  The 
heir-apparent,  now  in  his  fourteenth  year,  is  at 
Eton  school. 

One  question  may  very  naturally  be  asked — 
Why  was  not  that  substitute  for  the  law  of 
Corinth,  the  High  Court  of  Chancery  appealed 
to,  to  endeavour  to  stop  the  final  dissipation 
of  the  unentailed  portion  of  this  fine  property, 
since  it  is  quite  evident  that  for  the  last  several 
years  the  unfortunate  proprietor  was  not  equal  to 
the  management  of  it — no,  not  more  so  than  a 
child  of  six  years  old  ?    This  question  is  answered  in 

1  It  has  been  stated  to  me,  that  the  amount  of  timber 
sold  by  Mr.  Mytton  at  various  times  was  £80,000,  but 
I  will  not  pledge  myself  to  the  fact. 


1 68  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

many  ways.  Mr.  Mytton's  nearest  connexions 
were  compelled,  early  in  life,  to  leave  him  to 
his  fate,  their  endeavours  to  save  him  from  ruin 
having  been  always  rejected  by  himself.  He 
would  not,  like  Savage,  spurn  the  friend  who 
presumed  to  dictate  to  him,  but  he  heeded  him 
not.  That  he  was  half  mad  without  drink, 
and  rendered  quite  mad  with  it,  no  man  who 
knew  him  latterly  can  for  a  moment  doubt ;  and  a 
waggon  load  of  evidence  could  be  produced  to 
prove  that  fact.  But  let  us  suppose  a  commission 
of  inquiry,  a  writ  de  Lunatko  inquirendo  to  have 
been  issued !  Why  the  result  would  have  been 
this : — he  would  have  kept  himself  sober  for 
two  days,  and,  like  Sophocles  before  the 
Areopagus,  would  have  dumb-founded  his  oppo- 
nents. I  am,  however,  quite  certain  that  from 
the  time  he  arrived  first  at  Calais  to  the  day  of 
his  death,  bordering  on  three  years,  he  had  not 
the  slightest  insight  into  his  own  pecuniary 
affairs,  nor  did  he  know,  to  thousands,  how 
he  stood  in  the  world ;  and  moreover,  if  he 
had  had  ten  thousand  pounds  put  into  his  hands 
any  one  day,  he  would  not  have  had  a  shilling  of 
it  left  by  that  day  week !  !  I  can  bring  a  host  of 
evidence  to  back  me  in  this  assertion  ;  and  it  was  in 
vain  that  his  friends  asked  him  to  call  for  something 
like  a  statement  of  his  cash  account  from  those  who 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  169 

received  his  purchase  money,  for  estates  sold  for 
upwards  of  fifty  thousand  pounds,  subsequently  to 
his  arrival  in  Calais. 

Having  now  traced  this  extraordinary  character 
— this  anomaly  in  human  nature — this  mixture  of 
very  right  and  very  wrong — this  strange  compound 
of  contradictory  qualities  —  through  the  various 
stages  of  his  eventful  life,  over  which  he  may  be 
said  to  have  posted  with  the  rapidity  with 
which  he  travelled  on  the  road,  or,  rather,  with 
which  he  crossed  a  country  after  his  hounds, 
knocking  down  everything  before  him,  I  shall 
bring  his  memoir  to  an  end ;  and  if  I  have 
followed  him  through  a  long  train  of  errors  or 
follies,  which  mark  his  eventful  course,  it  has 
not  been  for  the  purpose  of  exposing  but  of 
accounting  for  them.  If  I  have  bared  the 
sore  with  one  hand  I  have  endeavoured  to  find 
a  balm  for  it  with  the  other,  and  it  would  be 
needless  to  demand  of  me — "  who  hath  required 
this  at  your  hands  ?  "  I  had  the  concurrence  of 
those  most  nearly  and  dearly  connected  with  him, 
one  of  whom  observed,  with  no  less  feeling  than  truth, 
that  the  task  I  have  undertaken  would  "  do  the  living 
service  and  rescue  the  character  of  the  dead."  The 
man  himself  has  passed  away,  yet  his  good  deeds 
remain  ;  as  to  his  follies,  we  will  cast  them  to  the 


170  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

winds  ;  but  unfortunately  for  his  character  when 
alive,  as  well  as  for  his  memory  now  he  is  no  more, 

"  There  is  a  lust  in  man,  no  charm  can  tame, 
Of  loudly  publishing  his  neighbour's  shame  : 
On  eagle's  wings  immortal  scandals  fly, 
While  virtuous  actions  are  but  born  and  die." 

He  has  been  represented  as  a  monster  for  acts  he  has 
never  committed,  and  why  should  the  sun  be  thus 
permitted  —  and  "  falsely  thus  "  —  to  go  down 
upon  his  shame  ?  It  is  true,  there  is  one  mournful 
blemish  on  his  character  which,  as  has  already 
been  said,  I  wish  could  be  washed  in  Lethe 
and  forgotten,  as  I  can  offer  no  extenuation  for 
it  but  insanity.  But  if  I  have  given  the  lie  to 
one  single  calumny  which  an  illnatured  world 
has  cast  upon  the  late  John  Mytton  unjustly,  I 
shall  be  satisfied.  He  is  the  best  man,  says  one  of 
the  best  judges  of  mankind,  that  has  the  fewest 
faults ;  but  he  that  has  none  is  not  to  be  found 
on  this  earth.1  Poor  Mytton's  faults  were  the  faults 
of  the  head,  not  of  the  heart,  than  which  no  man  had 
a  sounder  or  a  kinder.  They  were  numerous,  I 
admit ;  but  let  not  their  number  be  augmented,  nei- 
ther let  his  many  virtues  be  forgotten — and  above  all, 
remember  the  years  in  which  he  suffered  adversity  ! 

1  Vitiis  nemo  sine  nascitur;  optimus  ille 
Qui  minimis  urgetur. — Hor. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  171 

This  part  of  his  history,  however,  cannot  be  without 
a  useful  moral.  The  contemplation  of  distress,  no 
matter  how  created,  corrects  the  pride  of  prosperity, 
softens  the  mind  of  man,  and  makes  the  heart  better. 
Indeed,  it  was  by  such  representations  to  the 
public  eye  that  the  nature  of  man  was  first  polished 
and  refined.1 

The  service  done  to  the  living  only  commences 
here.  By  pointing  out  the  fatal  rock  on  which  Mr. 
Mytton  struck,  a  beacon  is  erected  which  might  warn 
others — if  they  would  see  it — who  are  entering 
now  on  the  voyage  of  life,  and  the  vicissitudes  of  his 
latter  days  and  the  melancholy  circumstances  of  his 
death  are  fearful  lessons  to  the  present  possessors  of 

1  I  one  day  told  Mr.  Mytton,  in  jest,  I  should  write  a 
history  of  his  life,  if  I  survived  him.  "I  shall  write  it 
myself,"  he  replied,  "like  Antoninus's  ko.6  eavrbv  !  "  It 
will  be  remembered  that,  in  a  frolic,  I  did  write  his 
epitaph  some  years  since  at  Halston,  and  it  was,  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  prophetic.  It  ran  thus  : — 
"  Here  lies  John  Mytton  ;  his  short  career  is  past, 

The  pace  was  quick,  and  therefore  could  not  last, 

From  end  to  end  he  went  an  arrant  burst, 

Determined  to  be  nowhere,  or  be  first. 

No  marble  monument  proclaims  his  fate — 

No  pompous  emblems  of  funereal  state  ; 

But  let  this  simple  tablet  say, 

That,  upon  a  much  lamented  day, 

There  went  to  ground,  beneath  this  mould'ring  sod, 

An  honest  man — the  noblest  work  of  God." 


172  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

what  he  once  was  master  of — namely,  all  that  might 
make  life  desirable  and  happy.  That  memorable 
position  then,  that  good  is  often  the  consequence  of 
evil,  is  once  more  illustrated  ;  and,  as  the  poet  says, 
it  often  happens,  when  they  little  dream  of  it,  that 

"  The  sons  of  men  may  owe 
The  fruits  of  bliss  to  bursting  clouds  of  woe." 

Let  me  indulge  in  a  few  more  moral 
reflections,  as  such  themes  do  not  often  present 
themselves  to  my  pen.  Man  has  been  repre- 
sented the  miracle  of  nature,  and  truly  John 
Mytton  does  not  give  the  lie  to  this.  Perhaps 
no  character  in  modern  times  can  be  found  as 
a  parallel  to  his,  which  is  on  one  side  dark  and 
desolate ;  yet  if  we  turn  the  reverse,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  determine  to  which  side  the  balance 
inclines.  But  in  human  nature  beauty  and 
deformity  are  so  closely  linked,  that  in  my  opinion 
the  character  of  no  man  can  be  very  nicely  weighed. 
Not  only  are  there  vices  and  virtues  which  bear  so 
strong  a  resemblance  to  each  other,  that  it  is  not 
easy  to  determine  where  the  former  end  and  where 
the  latter  begin  ;  but  the  virtues  of  some  men  are  so 
obscured  by  their  vices,  and  the  vices  of  others  so 
softened  down  by  their  virtues  (as  in  both  respects 
was  the  case  here)  that  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  sep- 
arate the  chaff"  and  cockle  from  the  good  grain.     As 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  173 

for  reconciling  the  contradictions  and  inconsistencies 
we  have  now  been  recounting,  it  would  be  vain 
to  attempt  it,  unless,  as  Johnson,  with  his  usual 
force,  says,  "  by  those  inconsistencies  which  folly 
produces  and  infirmity  suffers  in  the  human  mind." 
At  all  events,  an  analysis  of  such  a  character  as 
that  now  in  our  view  can  only  be  effected  by  a 
sort  of  debtor  and  creditor  account  of  good  and 
evil,  holding  the  balance  with  a  charitable  hand. 
But  it  must  be  said  of  Mytton,  what  Clarendon 
said  of  Cromwell,  and  what  had  been  said  of 
another  more  than  a  thousand  years  back,  that 
his  enemies  (if  he  had  any)  could  not  condemn 
him  without  commending  him  at  the  same  time. 
His  cardinal  virtue  was  benevolence  of  heart ;  his 
besetting  sin,  a  destroying  spirit,  not  amenable  to 
any  counsel,  and  an  apparent  contempt  for  all 
moral  restraint.  In  fact,  like  Charles  the  Fifth, 
who  impiously  asserted  "  there  was  but  one  Charles 
and  one  God,"  Mytton  appeared  to  aim  at  similar 
notoriety,  and  every  man  pays  a  dear  price  for 
that.  To  a  prodigality  of  heart,  he  added  a 
prodigality  of  hand  which  no  such  fortune  as  his 
could  suffice,  and  I  am  very  much  of  Tom  Penn's 
opinion,  that  "  if  he  had  had  two  hundred  thousand 
a  year  he  would  have  been  in  debt  in  five  years." 
But  although  his  extravagance  might  have  reduced 
Mr.   Mytton  to  want,   he   would    have    remained 


174  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

a  man  of  unblemished  integrity  in  rags,  and  nothing 
would  have  engaged  him  in  dishonest  practices. 
Oh,  no !  He  had  a  spirit,  which,  it  is  true,  was 
"  marred  in  its  beauty,"  but,  in  this  respect,  never 
forgetful  of  its  own  nobleness.  He  was  faithful 
to  his  friends,  an  indulgent  landlord,  and  a  most 
kind  master ;  and,  last  but  not  least  in  the  novelty, 
with  all  this  consideration  for  the  happiness  of  others, 
he  appears  to  have  possessed  very  little  for  himself. 

But  he  is  now — ill-fated  man — safe  in  his  urn, 
and  let  no  one  attempt  to  throw  more  stones  at 
his  monument.  There  are  specks  in  the  sun, 
straggling  weeds  amongst  the  choicest  flowers ; 
and  until  the  sons  of  Adam  cease  to  be  the  sons  of 
Adam,  perfection  must  not  be  expected  from  them. 
From  a  retrospect  of  his  career,  let  this  moral  be 
drawn  : — Life  has  been  compared  to  wine  ;  it  must 
not  be  drawn  to  the  dregs :  and  all  who  may  have 
it  in  their  power,  as  he  had,  to  drain  nature  to 
satiety,  will  find  out  at  last — as  I  myself  have  at 
last  found  out — that  tranquillity  of  mind  and 
health  of  body,  which  form  the  happiness  as  well 
as  the  security  of  life,  are  not  to  be  enjoyed  under 
the  tyrant  rule  of  passion,  and  nowhere  without 
something  like  discretion  to  guide  and  direct  us  in 
our  ordinary  concerns  and  pursuits. 


PART   IV 

A  S  may  be  supposed,  the  first  edition  of  the  Life 
of  Mr.  Mytton  in  the  form  of  a  book,  as  well 
as  its  first  appearance  in  the  pages  of  the  New 
Sporting  Magazine,  created  considerable  interest 
in  the  county  of  Salop ;  it  also  gave  rise  to 
the  recalling  to  mind  other  adventures  and 
hair-breadth  escapes  of  this  most  extraordinary 
man,  besides  such  as  I  had  already  detailed. 
Some  of  these  I  am  now  about  to  add  to  them 
have  presented  themselves  to  my  recollection 
since  the  Memoir  was  written,  and  others  are 
from  a  quarter — and  those  by  far  the  greater 
part  —  which  I  have  good  reason  to  believe 
may  be  considered  a  sufficient  guarantee  for 
the  truth  of  them.  They  have  been  sent  me 
by  the  writer  of  the  interesting  papers  contributed, 
under  the  name  of  "  Junglicus,"  (who,  it  appears, 
is  a  native  of  Shropshire,)  to  the  pages  of  the  New 
Sporting  Magazine.  Suppose  then,  I  commence 
with  a  few  more  of  his  larking  exploits  on  horse- 

175 


176  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

back,  and  in  carriages,  in  which  perhaps  no  man 
yet  born  was  his  equal.1 

On  one  occasion,  on  his  return  from  hunting, 
and  when  within  a  couple  of  miles  of  Halston,  he 
laid  a  trifling  wager  with  one  of  the  party  who  ac- 
companied him,  that  he  would  reach  home,  the  first. 
He  suffered  his  friend  to  take  the  lead  until  they 
arrived  on  the  Halston  domain,  and  were  going  at 
speed  in  a  line  with  the  lake,  which  is  one  of  con- 
siderable breadth ;  when,  suddenly  pulling  up  his 
horse,  and  forcing  him  into  the  water,  he  was  con- 
veyed by  him  with  safety  across  it.  Thus,  by 
cutting  off  an  acute  angle,  he  gained  a  considerable 
advantage  over  his  competitor ;  and,  jumping  the 
sunken  fence  into  the  flower  garden,  arrived  first  at  his 
hall  door.  It  must  be  observed  that  Mr.  Mytton 
could  not  swim,  even  a  little — not  across  a  duck 
pond! 

It  hasalready  been  shown  howregardless  Mr.  Myt- 
ton was  of  weather,  whether  hot  or  cold ;  and  with  the 

1  I  am  certain  it  will  be  considered  but  fair  towards 
myself  to  state  here,  that  when  this  Memoir  appeared  in 
the  pages  of  the  New  Sporting  Magazine,  I  never  con- 
templated its  coming  forth  in  the  shape  of  a  book,  illus- 
trated with  plates,  and  not  having  an  opportunity  of 
revising  the  press,  some  errors  unavoidably  crept  in, 
which  it  has  now  been  in  my  power  to  correct. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  177 

thermometer  at  zero,  he  would  be  seen  walking  to 
his  stables  before  breakfast,  with  nothing  on  his  per- 
son but  his  shirt,  dressing  gown,  and  slippers.  On 
one  occasion  he  mounted  a  hunter  in  this  partial 
attire,  and,  accompanied  by  one  of  his  guests,  equally 
wild  as  himself,  rode  bare-backed  over  the  country 
for  three  or  four  miles.  In  some  of  these  frolics, 
however,  he  ascertained  the  good  properties  of 
his  horses,  with  which  perhaps  he  would  not 
otherwise  have  been  acquainted.  For  example 
— at  the  end  of  a  capital  run,  in  Shropshire,  his 
whipper-in  rode  a  horse  called  Oliver,  over  a  brook 
which  Mytton's  own  horse  refused.  "  Stop," 
said  he  to  him ;  "  it  is  fit  that  the  master  should 
ride  the  best  horse ; "  and  from  that  day  till  he 
became  blind,  which  was  not  for  several  seasons 
afterwards,  no  person  but  himself  rode  Oliver  with 
hounds. 

Frolics  of  all  sorts  delighted  him.  On  one 
occasion  a  thought  struck  him  that  a  good  race 
might  be  made  between  waggon  horses ;  and  seeing 
four  of  his  own  at  the  moment,  he  ordered  all 
their  gearing,  except  their  bridles,  to  be  taken  off 
them,  and  to  be  drawn  up  in  a  line.  Having 
mounted  one  of  them  himself,  he  persuaded 
three  of  his  friends  to  jockey  the  others,  and 
away  they  went  as  fast  as  words  and  blows  could 


178  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

avail.  By  a  preconcerted  plan,  however,  Mytton 
placed  the  waggoner  at  a  spot  where  the  ground 
was  somewhat  on  the  descent,  with  orders  to 
cry  out  "Who-ho,"  at  a  signal  given  by  himself. 
The  horses  knowing  the  voice,  and  glad  to 
obey  the  word,  stopped  so  suddenly  as  to  occasion 
two  of  his  three  friends,  who  rode  on  the  bare 
back,  to  glide  from  their  seats,  and  fall  headlong 
to  the  ground. 

In  a  long  frost,  Mytton  was  often  at  a  loss  for 
out  of  door  sport,  although  he  was  far  from  being 
particular  as  to  the  means  by  which  it  could  be 
procured — so  little  so  indeed  that  I  remember  his 
once  letting  out  a  fox,  and  a  lot  of  his  own  hounds 
to  hunt  him,  when  he  was  aware  that  no  horseman 
— not  even  himself — had  a  chance  to  follow  them 
over  two  fields,  and  consequently  they  were  seen 
no  more  till  the  next  morning.  Being,  however, 
during  one  very  hard  frost,  quite  at  a  loss  for  a 
lark,  he  had  recourse  to  the  following  expedient. 
He  sent  to  Oswestry  for  twenty  pairs  of  skates, 
and  had  twenty  of  his  servants  (stable-boys,  &c.) 
mounted  upon  them,  the  greater  part  of  them,  as 
may  be  supposed,  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives. 
He  then  had  a  number  of  rats  turned  down  before 
terriers — one  of  each  at  a  time — on  the  ice,  when 
tumbling  was  the    order  of  the  day.     But  a  cir- 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  179 

cumstance  occurred  which  put  a  stop  to  the 
diversion,  if  such  it  could  be  called ;  and  I  only 
wonder  that  the  person  who  was  the  cause  of  it 
escaped  with  whole  bones.  The  purveyor  of  the 
rats  was  the  cowherd,  who  was  paid  by  the  tails 
for  his  rats  on  all  other  occasions,  and  to  ensure 
payment  for  these,  had  actually  cut  off  their  tails 
before  turning  them  down,  which  Mytton  acci- 
dentally found  out  by  seeing  blood  upon  the  ice. 
As  may  be  supposed,  he  immediately  put  a  stop 
to  such  a  barbarous  proceeding,  and  had  not  the 
old  cowherd  been  a  favourite,  he  would  have  had 
an  awful  beating. 

I  have  already  stated  that  there  was  a  heronry 
at  Halston,  in  which  there  were  annually  from 
fifty  to  eighty  nests.  Mytton  expressed  a  wish 
to  have  some  young  herons  taken  in  order  to 
satisfy  himself  of  the  asserted  superiority  of  heron 
over  rook  pie.  The  nests  being  on  the  very  tops 
of  high  trees,  neither  his  keepers,  nor  any  persons 
about  the  house,  would  undertake  to  get  them. 
"  Here  goes  then,"  said  Mytton ;  and  stripping 
off  his  coat  and  waistcoat,  he  ascended  a  tree 
of  prodigious  height,  and  safely  brought  down  his 
prize. 

Whilst  in  the  Seventh  Hussars,  and  quartered  with 


180  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

the  army  of  occupation  in  Fiance,  he  heard  of  a 
badger  that  no  dog  in  that  country  was  able  to 
draw.  Having  offered  a  bet,  which  was  accepted, 
that  he  •would  produce  a  dog  in  a  certain  given  time 
that  would  perform  that  act,  he  very  coolly  ordered 
his  favourite  servant  ("old  John,"  as  he  always 
called  him,  and  who  was  in  his  service  from  his 
boyhood),  to  go  to  a  village  called  Cockshut,  in 
Shropshire,  and  purchase  and  bring  to  him,  one 
Burroughs's  dog.  Nor  did  the  order  end  here. 
"If  Burroughs  won't  part  with  his  dog,"  said 
Mytton,  "  bring  him  over,  dog  and  all,  at  his 
own  price"!  The  dog,  however,  was  bought 
for  eight  pounds,  and  drew  the  badger  in  great 
style.  He  was  a  small  animal,  half  bull,  half 
terrier ;  and  having  been  brought  to  England  by 
Mytton,  remained  at  Halston,  where  he  was  well 
taken  care  of,  till  he  died. 

Most  of  his  frolics  were  of  a  ludicrous  at  the 
same  time  of  a  perfectly  harmless  nature.  I  can 
enumerate  a  few.  On  going  into  the  bar  of 
the  Lion  Inn,  Shrewsbury,  one  evening,  when 
somewhat  "  sprung "  by  wine,  he  was  told  there 
was  a  box  m  the  coach  -  office  for  him,  which 
contained  two  brace  of  foxes.  He  requested  it 
might  be  brought  to  him  ;  when  taking  up  the 
poker,    he    knocked     off     the     lid    of    it,    and 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  181 

let  the  foxes  out  in  the  room  in  which  the 
landlady  and  some  of  her  female  friends  were 
assembled — giving  a  thrilling  view  -  holloa  at  the 
time.  Now  it  cannot  be  said  they  "  broke  cover  " 
in  good  style ;  but  it  may  safely  be  asserted,  that 
they  broke  such  a  great  quantity  of  bottles,  glasses, 
and  crockery-ware,  as  to  have  rendered  the  joke 
an  expensive  one. 

In  1829,  having  been  disappointed  by  a  blank 
day  with  Sir  Edward  Smythe's  hounds,  which 
then  hunted  the  Shrewsbury  country,  he  was 
determined  upon  a  lark  when  he  got  home.  He 
accordingly  ordered  some  drafted  hounds,  which 
he  had  in  his  kennel  at  Halston,  together  with  all 
the  terriers  and  bull-dogs,  about  the  house,  to  be 
taken  to  a  certain  place,  where  he  also  ordered  to 
be  assembled  all  the  servants  of  his  establishment, 
mounted  on  whatever  they  could  catch — such  as 
ponies,  donkeys,  or  mules — and  a  fox  to  be  turned 
out  before  them.  The  scene  was,  as  may  be  supposed, 
a  most  ludicrous  one,  although  it  was  accidentally 
concluded  by  an  act  of  cruelty  from  which  humanity 
revolts.  A  stable-boy,  on  a  fast  pony,  having  been 
first  up  when  the  fox  was  laid  hold  of  by  the  hounds, 
cut  off  his  brush  without  waiting  for  him  to  be  killed, 
and,  breaking  away  from  the  park,  the  poor  animal 
ran  over  several  fields  in  that  mutilated  state  before  he 


i82  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

was  again  run  into  by  the  pack.  But  Mytton  was 
often  in  the  habit  of  mounting  his  servants  with  his 
hounds  when  he  turned  out  bag  foxes,  merely  for 
the  sake  of  witnessing  the  falls  they  got,  from  their 
want  of  skill  in  horsemanship.  And  he  was  equally 
fond  of  creating  amusement,  even  at  the  expense 
of  his  own  person.  For  example  : — During  his 
successful  contest  for  the  borough  of  Shrewsbury, 
in  1 819,  he  threw  himself  from  the  car  in  which 
he  was  being  carried  home  from  the  hustings, 
through  a  window  into  the  Lion  Inn  in  that  town, 
at  the  imminent  hazard  of  his  life.  But  the  turmoil 
of  a  contested  election  was  a  fine  field  for  John 
Mytton.  On  one  occasion  the  principal  champion 
of  the  opposing  party  stood  opposite  to  his  inn, 
challenging  any  man  to  contend  with  him.  Mytton 
listened  to  his  bravado  for  a  while  ;  till  his  Welch 
blood  being  excited  ;  when  he  set  to  and  thrashed 
him  to  his  heart's  content  after  only  five  rounds. 
He  then  put  something  into  his  fist,  as  he  said, 
"  to  make  him  comfortable  for  the  evening." 

He  was  very  much  beloved  by  the  labouring 
classes  within  a  large  circle  round  his  house, 
and  would  occasionally  enter  their  cottages 
without  invitation  or  ceremony.  His  horse 
having  fallen  with  him  one  day,  and  broken 
his     knees     very     badly,      he     applied     to     an 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  183 

old  woman  by  the  road  side,  for  some  linen  band- 
ages to  apply  to  them.  Being  unable  to  furnish 
them,  he  thus  addressed  her.  "  Never  mind,  my 
good  woman ;  bring  your  scissors  here  and  cut  off 
the  tail  of  my  shirt,  and  then  you  may  cut  up  the 
sleeves  of  it,  which  will  make  capital  bandages." 
On  another  occasion,  after  having  been  long 
exposed  to  cold  on  the  Hawkestone  hills,  with 
hounds,  he  entered  a  house  near  Wem,  taking 
his  favourite  hunter,  Baronet,  along  with  him ; 
and  having  ordered  a  good  fire  to  be  made  to  warm 
himself  and  his  horse,  departed  for  home,  saying 
they  were  both  very  much  the  better  for  it,  and 
also  for  what  they  found  in  the  house, — for  he  was 
by  no  means  particular  as  to  what  he  helped  him- 
self or  his  horse  on  these  occasions ;  and  is  said 
once  to  have  seriously  injured  a  horse  by  dosing 
him  as  he  dosed  himself — ivith  wine.1 

Again — he  one  day  rode  at  the  Ellesmere  canal, 
and  of  course  got  a  ducking.  Finding  himself  very 
cold,  on  the  road  home,  with  his  hounds,  he  exchanged 
his  wet  coat  for  a  flannel  petticoat  which  he  espied  on 
a  cottager's  garden  hedge ;  and  slipping  it  over  his 

1  It  is  stated  by  a  correspondent  that  the  horse  I  allude 
to,  called  Sportsman,  dropped  down  dead  in  his  gig.  in 
consequence  of  his  owner  having  given  him  a  bottle  of 
mulled  port  wine  at  Wrexham.  I  knew  the  horse  well, 
but  cannot  vouch  for  the  cause  of  his  death. 


1 84  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

head,  pursued  his  course,  to  the  great  amusement 
of  all  spectators,  leaving  his  coat  to  be  brought  to 
Halston  by  the  owner  of  the  said  petticoat ! 

In  speaking  of  Mr.  Mytton  as  a  horseman,  I 
have  stated  the  singular  fact  of  his  never  having 
so  completely  tired  his  horses  in  the  field  as  to 
have  been  obliged  to  walk,  home,  which  I,  in 
great  part,  attribute  to  his  strength  of  hand  in 
assisting  them  in  their  work.  It  is  true  he  rode 
excellent  horses,  for  bad  ones  were  useless  to  him  ; 
but  he  really  appeared  to  have  a  sort  of  magic 
influence  over  their  tempers  —  at  all  events  it 
seemed  as  if  they  sympathised  with  him  in  his 
frolics — for  they  were  always  tranquil  under  him, 
and  would  do  almost  any  thing  he  required  them 
to  do.  He  would  ride  them  up  steps,  and  down 
steps,  and  round  the  inside  of  the  house,  without 
their  appearing  to  be  in  the  least  disconcerted  or 
alarmed,  nor  did  I  ever  hear  that  he  was  a 
sufferer  by  such  dangerous  frolics. 

Some  of  Mytton's  practical  jokes  were  rather 
"beyond  a  joke" — or  in  other  words,  he  would  some- 
times "  drive  the  jest  too  far."  For  example.  He 
had  the  wire  of  a  spring  gun  laid  in  the  path,  in  his 
shrubbery  at  Halston,  which  he  knew  his  chaplain 
would  take  on  his  road  to  church.     So  soon  as  he 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  185 

heard  the  report,  for  which  he  was  of  course  on 
the  watch,  he  ran  out  of  the  house  and  accused 
the  parson  of  shooting  at  his  pheasants  on  a  Sunday. 
His  reverence's  nerves,  however,  were  so  dis- 
turbed by  the  shock,  that  he  was  unable  to  face 
his  congregation  until  he  returned  to  the  house  and 
composed  himself.  Mytton's  universal  remedy  was 
proposed  by  him,  and  two  glasses  of  Madeira  made 
the  parson  all  right  again. 

Mytton  may  be  said  to  have  lived  in  a  storm, 
for  a  row  was  his  delight.  Nevertheless,  although 
there  was  an  apparent  ferocity  of  temper  about  him 
at  times,  it  was  blended  with  much  kindness  of 
heart,  and  he  scarcely  ever  thrashed  a  man  that  he 
did  not  give  him  something  afterwards  as  amends. 
I  remember  hearing  of  an  unfortunate  horsebreaker 
having  been  carried,  nolens  vo/ens,  by  a  half-broken 
colt  into  the  midst  of  his  hounds.  Mytton  flogged 
him  severely,  and  then  gave  him  a  guinea.  But 
there  are  scores  of  similar  facts  to  this  upon 
record  —  one  of  which  I  have  already  related. 
He  would  not,  however,  suffer  any  man  to  take 
an  improper  liberty  with  him,  and,  in  that  case, 
there  was  no  compensation  for  a  thrashing.  A 
Shrewsbury  tradesman,  when  a  little  "sprung*' 
ventured  to  call  him  "  Johnny."  Mytton  floored 
him  on  the  spot. 


1 86  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

He  was  the  dread  of  the  owners  of  the  minor 
gambling-tables  who  frequent  country  races,  for 
he  was  given  to  break  their  banks  in  more  ways 
than  one.  In  the  first  place,  as  I  before  observed, 
he  was  often  a  great  winner  ;  and  in  the  next, 
he  would  demolish  the  entire  apparatus  if  he 
suspected  any  unfair  advantage  to  be  taken  of 
himself,  or  of  any  other  person  in  the  room. 
At  Warwick  races,  in  1824,  he  and  his  com- 
panions not  only  broke  a  rouge  et  noir  table  to 
atoms,  but  gave  the  proprietor  of  it  and  his 
gang  a  sound  drubbing  into  the  bargain.  They 
applied  to  the  magistrates  for  redress,  but  Mytton 
had  been  beforehand  with  them,  and  conse- 
quently they  got  none.  He  was  likewise  once, 
together  with  some  others,  surprised  by  the 
Mayor  of  Chester,  in  the  act  of  playing  hazard, 
in  a  room  hired  for  the  purpose,  on  the  Sunday 
evening  previous  to  the  races  of  that  town.  On 
seeing  the  Mayor  enter,  he  coolly  put  his  winnings 
into  his  hat ;  then  the  hat  on  his  head  ;  and  then 
walked  away  unnoticed,  being  taken  only  for  a 
spectator. 

I  have  spoken  of  Mytton  as  a  shot,  and  I  believe  no 
sportsman  need  be  superior  to  what  he  was  at  one 
time  of  his  life.  For  myself,  I  only  knew  him  as  a 
game  shot,  as  the  term  is,  never  having  seen  him  with 


x^ 


^ 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  187 

either  pistol  or  rifle  in  his  hand.  It  has,  however, 
been  represented  to  me,  on  the  authority  to  which 
I  have  before  alluded,  that  he  was  a  most  superior 
marksman  with  a  rifle — so  superior  indeed  as  to 
be  able  to  hit  the  edge  of  a  razor  at  a  distance 
of  thirty  yards,  and  occasionally  to  split  his 
ball!  "  Credat  Judaus" —  I  do  not  add  "»o« 
ego " ;  yet  I  never  chanced  to  hear  of  such  a 
wonderful  performance.  But  I  will  transcribe 
the  rest  of  the  story,  and  leave  my  readers  to 
make  the  best  of  it. 

"  He  would,"  writes  my  informant,  "  cross  the 
yard  (at  Halston),  and  shoot  from  one  of  the  iron 
gates  on  the  drive,  or  carriage  road,  to  the  coal- 
house  wall,  a  distance  of  fifty-five  yards,  and  put  his 
ball  through  the  peg-hole  of  a  trimmer  (used  for 
pike  fishing).  The  trimmer-cork,  in  this  instance, 
was  placed  on  the  tame  fox's  cub,  or  kennel,  with 
the  flat  side  towards  Mytton's  aim ;  and  it  invari- 
ably fell  to  the  ground  on  each  time  of  being  fired 
at, — the  ball  actually  going  through  the  aperture 
where  the  peg  of  the  trimmer  is  put  in,  and  not 
above  an  inch  and  a  half  diameter,  covered  with 
a  piece  of  white  paper,  pasted  thereon,  to  ascertain 
the  fact.  This  he  has  done  over  and  over  again 
to  the  amazement  of  all  who  have  witnessed  it,  and 
with  his  rifle  to  his  shoulder,  and  not  on  a  rest,  as 


1 88  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

might  be  imagined  by  some.  Talk  of  Americans, 
for  their  precision  in  shooting,  after  this  !  It  cannot 
be  surpassed,  if  equalled."  To  this  account  is  added 
the  fact  of  his  having  shot  rats  with  a  rifle,  from  the 
top  of  his  house,  and  sundry  other  achievements, 
rather  too  marvellous  to  relate.1 

As  I  have  already  said,  no  part  of  this  extra- 
ordinary man's  character  is  more  interesting  to 
the  generality  of  the  readers  of  this  memoir,  than 
that  which  relates  to  his  exploits  in  the  saddle  and 
in  carriages. 

During  the  period  of  Sir  Bellingham  Graham 
hunting  Shropshire,  he  performed  several  gallant 
feats  in  the  field.  Whilst  suffering  severely  from 
the  effects  of  a  fall,  and  with  his  right  arm  in  a 
sling,  he  rode  his  favourite  hunter,  Baronet,  over 
the  park,  paling  of  the  late  Lord  Berwick,  of 
Atsham,  near  Shrewsbury,  to  the  astonishment 
of  the  whole  field  —  Sir  Bellingham  himself 
exclaiming,  "  Well  done,  Neck  or  Nothing ; 
you  are  not  a  bad  one  to  breed  from."  With 
the  same  hounds,  he  signalized  himself  greatly 
in  a  run  from  Bomer-wood  to  Haughmond-hill, 
when  the  river  Severn  brought  the  field  to  check. 

1  For  example. — He  is  represented  as  having  more  than 
once  put  a  ball  through  a  man's  hat,  whilst  on  his  head ! 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  189 

Three  or  four  of  them  managed  to  get  their  horses 
into  a  boat,  but  Mytton  scorned  its  assistance. 
"  Let  all  who  call  themselves  sportsmen,"  he 
exclaimed,  "  follow  me ;  "  and,  dashing  into  the 
stream,  gained  the  opposite  bank,  and  was  one  of 
the  very  few  who  saw  the  fox  killed.  It  must 
again  be  observed,  that  Mytton  was  no  swimmer, 
and  the  Severn  is  broad  and  deep,  and  with  banks 
none  of  the  best. 

On  another  occasion,  he  nearly  lost  his  life  in 
the  Severn,  in  a  run  with  his  own  hounds,  near 
Bridgenorth.  All  the  field  but  himself  crossed  it 
by  a  horse-ferry  boat,  but  he  gallantly  plunged  into 
it,  although  it  was  much  swollen  by  rain  at  the 
time.  His  mare — a  fine  hunter,  called  Cara  Sposa 
— was  carried  a  long  way  down  the  stream  by  the 
current,  and  although  she  at  length  gained  the 
opposite  side  with  him,  the  bank  would  not  admit 
of  her  landing  herself.  His  whipper-in  (Ned 
Evans),  however,  who  had  crossed  by  the  boat, 
fortunately  came  to  his  assistance,  and  pulled  him 
up  the  bank,  leaving  the  mare  in  the  water.  Nor 
does  the  story  end  here.  Jumping  upon  the  whip's 
mare,  Mytton  got  to  his  hounds,  and  the  mare  was 
eventually  brought  ashore,  without  much  injury. 

Still  I  have  reason  to  believe  the  hair-breadth 


igo  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

escapes  on  wheels  even  exceeded  those  in  the  saddle, 
which  perhaps  may  be  in  some  measure  accounted 
for  by  his  early  predilection  for  tandem  driving — 
the  most  hazardous  of  any,  even  in  the  best  of  hands, 
and  Mytton  was  no  coachman.1  The  following 
feat,  if  true,  certainly  out-herod's  Herod ;  but  my 
readers  shall  have  it  exactly  as  I  myself  had  it, 
accompanied  with  the  following  remark  ; — Nothing, 
we  are  led  to  believe  is  impossible  with  God ; 
nothing  was  improbable  of  the  late  John  Mytton. 

"  He  was  one  day,"  says  my  informant, 
"  engaged  to  dine  with  a  friend  at  some  distance 
from  Halston,  and  came,  as  usual,  in  his  tandem. 
After  dinner,  the  conversation  turning  on  the 
danger  of  that  mode  of  harnessing  horses,  from  the 
little  command  the  driver  can  have  over  the  leader, 
Mytton  at  once  expressed  his  dissent  from  this 
doctrine ;  and  being  under  the  influence  of  the 
"rosy  god,"  offered  to  bet  a  pony  (^25)  all 
round,  that  he  would,  that  night,  drive  his  tandem 
across  the  country,  into  the  turnpike  road,  a  distance 
of  half  a  mile,  having  in  his  progress  to  get  over 
a    sunk-fence,    three    yards    wide ;    a    broad    deep 

1  When  I  say  he  was  "  no  coachman,"  I  mean  he  knew 
nothing  of  the  science  or  system  of  driving  four  horses. 
He  would,  however,  now  and  then  take  hold  of  a  team 
in  the  Holyhead  mail,  and  I  was  told  that  when  he  did, 
he  never  attempted  to  lark. 


^ 


1 


* 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  191 

drain ;  and  two  stiff  quick-set-fences,  with 
ditches  on  the  further  side !  !  The  bets  offered 
were  taken  by  several  of  the  party  present,  to 
the  tune  of  ^150  and  upwards,  and  after  the 
necessary  preparations,  all  turned  out  to  see 
the  fun,  although  in  justice  it  should  be  said,  as 
Mytton  was  then  under  age,  it  was  not  only 
proposed  to  him  that  the  bets  made  should  be  off, 
but  he  was  strongly  persuaded  not  to  make  the 
attempt.  This,  however,  with  him  had  always  a 
contrary  effect ;  and  twelve  men,  with  lanthorns  on 
poles,  having  been  procured,  to  aid  the  light  of  the 
moon,  away  went  Mytton  at  the  appointed  signal 
being  given. 

"  The  first  obstacle  was  the  sunk  fence,  into 
which,  as  may  be  expected,  he  was  landed ;  but 
the  opposite  side  being  on  a  gradual  slope,  from 
bottom  to  top,  the  carriage  and  its  extraordinary 
inmate,  by  dint  of  whipping,  were  drawn  out 
without  receiving  injury.  Nowise  disconcerted, 
he  sent  his  team  at  the  next  fence — the  wide 
drain — and  such  was  the  pace  he  went  at,  that 
it  was  cleared  by  a  yard  or  more ;  but  the  jerk 
pitched  Mytton  on  the  wheeler's  back  ;  but  crawl- 
ing over  the  dashing  leather,  he  resumed  his  seat, 
and  got  his  horses  again  into  the  proper  direction, 
and  taking  the  two  remaining  fences  in  gallant  style, 


192  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

got  safe  into  the  turnpike  road,  and  pocketed 
the  cash.  This  occurred  at  Mr.  Walford's1 
of  Cronkhill,  about  four  miles  from  Shrews- 
bury." 

The  above  appears  somewhat  of  a  miraculous 
adventure ;  but  that  Mytton  was  equal  to  the 
attempt,  no  one  who  knew  him  as  well  as  I 
knew  him  would  doubt.  Indeed  I  have  already 
stated  a  fact  (I  think  in  my  Shropshire  Tour) 
bearing  some  relation  to  it.  He  was  driving 
me  from  Shrewsbury  to  Chillington  to  dinner, 
and  after  one  or  two  trifling  occurrences,  such  as 
knocking  down  a  bullock,  and  breaking  a  shaft 
of  the  gig  on  the  road,  we  found  ourselves  in  an 
awkward  predicament.  By  having  taken  a  wrong 
turn,  on  approaching  the  house,  we  found  ourselves 
in  a  field  with  no  means  of  getting  out  of  it,  except 
by  the  gate  by  which  we  entered  it ;  and  we 
were  already  behind  time  for  dinner.  "We'll 
manage  it,"  said  Mytton;  "this  horse  is  a  capital 
fencer,  so  do  you  get  over  the  fence  (a  hedge  and 
ditch)  and  catch  him."  He  then  merely  unbuckled 
the  bearing  rein,  gave  the  horse  a  cut  with  his  whip, 
and  over  he  came,  gig  and  all,  without  the  slightest 
accident. 

1  I  knew  Mr.  Walford,  and,  for  all  that  I  know  to  the 
contrary,  he  is  alive  to  refute  or  confirm  this  statement. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  193 

Amongst  the  numerous  anecdotes  sent  to  me 
since  the  publication  of  the  first  edition  of  this 
memoir,  was  the  following.  Having  shown  a 
friend  his  entire  stud  at  Halston,  as  also  his  hounds, 
&c,  he  told  him  he  had  something  still  better 
worth  his  seeing,  in  reserve  for  him  ;  and  on  open- 
ing his  coach-house  doors,  he  thus  addressed  him. 
"  You  see  that  gig  ;  last  night  it  was  carried  clean 
over  my  lodge  gate,  and  it  is  not  a  bit  the  worse 
for  it,  nor,  as  you  have  seen,  is  the  horse  that 
carried  it  over."  Now  this  sounds  rather 
marvellous ;  but  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of 
Wrexham,  in  Denbighshire,  can  well  remember  a 
somewhat  similar  circumstance  occurring  at  a  villa 
close  to  that  town,  some  twenty  years  back.  A 
horse,  the  property  of  the  late  Mr.  Watkin  Hayman, 
ran  away  with  his  gig  from  the  door,  and  carried  it 
over  a  high  palisade  gate,  without  injury  to  either 
himself  or  the  gig.  I  went  the  next  day  to  see  the 
gate,  and  the  only  impression  left  upon  it  was  the 
fracture  of  one  of  the  spikes,  or  points,  of  the  top 
rail.  But  Mytton  would  wantonly  seek  accidents 
from  gigs  and  phaetons ;  and,  latterly,  I  never 
entered  into  one  with  him,  but  on  condition  of 
his  having  nothing  to  do  with  the  reins.  I 
remember  seeing  him  get  out  of  his  phaeton 
at  the  hall  door  at  Halston,  and  instead  of  letting 
a  servant  drive  it  round  to  the  stables,  start 
13 


194  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

the  horses  off  by  themselves,  at  a  gallop ;  and, 
strange  to  say,  they  conducted  the  carriage  safely 
into  the  yard,  although  they  had  two  rather  sharp 
turns  to  make,  and  one  gate  to  go  through.  This 
was  in  the  life-time  of  the  first  Mrs.  Mytton,  who 
had  more  than  one  providential  escape  from  this 
same  phaeton. 

In  his  love  of  frolics,  I  never  knew  nor  heard  of 
but  one  person  anywise  his  equal.  This  was  the 
late  well  known  "Tom  Leigh,"  as  he  was  gener- 
ally called,  of  High  Leigh,  in  Cheshire,  a  gentleman 
of  very  large  fortune,  and  altogether  a  truly  singular 
character.  He  had  a  regular  pit-fall  in  his  grounds, 
into  which  he  would  walk  a  stranger  who  came  to 
visit  him,  and  sundry  other  manoeuvres  which  he 
called  sport.  Even  the  parson  of  the  parish  was 
not  exempt  from  being  made  the  subject  of  a  lark,  as 
the  following  anecdote  will  show.  Imagining  him- 
self to  be  a  good  judge  of  horse-flesh,  he  invariably 
brought  his  new  purchase  to  the  Squire  of  High 
Leigh,  partly  for  his  approbation,  and  partly  in  proof 
of  his  own  skill  in  the  selection  of  him.  On  one 
occasion  the  nag  was  ordered  into  the  stable,  and 
his  reverence  also  well  taken  care  of  for  the  night, 
the  next  morning  being  a  hunting  morning.  "  Now 
Doctor,"  said  the  Squire,  as  soon  as  breakfast  was 
over,  "  we  will  go  into  the  stables  and  see  this  famous 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  195 

new  horse  of  yours,  of  which  you  have  talked  to 
me  so  much."  But  he  was  not  to  be  found.  The 
parson  declared  he  himself  put  him  in  a  particular 
stall  ;  and  there  in  truth  he  ivas  ;  but  the  Squire 
having  ordered  him  to  be  cropped  and  docked  over 
night,  his  owner  had  not  the  slightest  recollection 
of  him.  As  may  be  supposed,  a  hearty  laugh  was 
raised  at  his  expense,  and  there  was  an  end  of  all 
future,  somewhat  boring,  exhibitions  of  inferior 
animals  to  a  man  who  had  some  of  the  best  horses 
that  money  could  procure,  and  who  was  really  a 
judge  of  them.  But  I  was  never  an  admirer  of 
practical  jokes,  especially  when,  as  in  this  instance, 
the  sufferings  of  an  animal  form  a  feature  in  them. 
Neither  were  many  of  the  frolics  of  poor  Mytton 
creditable  to  him.  In  the  first  place  they  are 
always  inconsistent  with  manhood ;  and  in  the 
next,  knowing  no  bounds  with  him,  they  often  led 
him  into  excesses  which  endangered  his  character 
as  a  man,  and  verified  the  censure  passed  upon 
them  by  Horace  : — 

"  Lusit  amabiliter ;  donee  jam  ssevus  apertam 
In  rabiem  verti  ccepit  jocus." 

Some  idea  may  be  formed  of  Mr.  Mytton's  zeal 
in  the  pursuit  of  every  description  of  sporting,  by  the 
following  extract  from  the  catalogue  of  effects  sold 
at  Halston,  when  the  establishment  was  broken  up. 


i96  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

NET   HOUSE. 

Three  bush  nets,  26  and  28  yards  long,  5  deep 
Two  small  mesh  nets  for  bushes 
Three  larger  ditto  ditto 
Two  drag  nets,  with  large  tunnels 
Four  trammel  flue  nets  of  various  sizes 
One  minnow  net 
One  minnow  net  and  pole 
Three  gutter  nets.     Two  casting  nets 
Two  drum  nets.     One  cleaching  net 
One  large  salmon  net 
One  gudgeon,  or  fine  meshed,  brook  net 
Four  landing  nets  of  various  sizes 
Six  fishing  poles.     Four  bait  cans 
Two  large  fish  cans.     Two  angling  chairs 
Two  coracles,  or  small  fishing  boats 
Two  eel  spears.     Two  trout  spears 

One   salmon   spear.       Fishing   cases   and    rods   of   every 
description. 

IN    THE    ENGINE    HOUSE    AND    AVIARV. 

Six  pheasant  nets 

Three  rabbit  nets  and  several  purse  nets 

Two  pairs  of  lark  nets 

One  partridge  net 

Various  rabbit  traps,  in  lots 

One  hundred   and   twenty-eight   vermin   traps  of  every 

description 
One  badger  cub 
Two  fox  cubs 
Thirteen  dog  kennels 
Fourteen  ferret  boxes 
Three  cages  for  wild  animals 
Nine  bird  cages 
Sixteen  pairs  of  quoits 
Two  sets  of  bowls 
Sundry  cricket  bats  and  balls 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  197 

GUNS. 

Six  rifles  of  various  bores 
Nine  double-barrelled  guns 
Four  single  ditto 
Some  dozens  of  powder  flasks 
Shot  belts,     Gun  cases,  &c.  &c. 

As  a  finish  to  his  shooting  career,  the  following 
anecdote  may  be  relied  upon.  On  a  very  cold 
morning  after  a  very  warm  night,  he  disturbed 
some  herons,  whilst  pheasant  shooting.  "  They 
are  out  of  distance,  sir,"  said  his  keeper.  "  The 
devil  they  are !  "  replied  Mytton ;  "  but  I'll  be 
with  them,"  and  into  the  water  he  plunged. 

Perhaps  Mytton  never  made  himself  much  more 
conspicuous  in  the  field,  than  he  did  upon  what,  a 
few  years  back,  was  well  known  in  the  hunting 
circles  of  Cheshire,  Shropshire,  and  Staffordshire, 
as  "  The  Shavington  Day."  This  was  a  day  on 
which  a  trial  of  speed,  nose,  and  bottom  was  to  be 
made  between  the  fox-hounds  of  Sir  Harry  Main- 
waring,  of  Peover-Hall,  Cheshire,  commonly  called 
"  the  Cheshire  hounds,"  hunted  by  Will  Head, 
now  huntsman  to  the  Marquis  of  Hastings  ;  those 
kept  joindy  by  Sir  Edward  Smythe,  of  Acton 
Burnal-park,  Mr.  Smythe  Owen,  of  Condover- 
hall,  and  Mr.  Lloyd,  of  Aston-hall,  each  in  the 
County  of  Salop,  (late  Sir  Bellingham  Graham's) 


1 98  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

commonly  called  "  the  Shropshire  hounds "  ;  and 
those  of  Mr.  Wicksted,  whose  kennel  is  at  Betley, 
near  Newcastle-under-Lyne,  from  which  they  hunt 
what  is  called  "the  Woore  country,"  once  hunted 
by  the  late  Sir  Thomas  Mostyn,  previously  to  his 
taking  Oxfordshire,  and  likewise  a  part  of  Shrop- 
shire ;  hunted  by  Charles  Wells,  formerly  huntsman 
to  the  Oakley,  in  the  time  of  Lords  Ludlow  and 
Tavistock,  and  who  is  still,  I  believe,  with  Mr. 
Wicksted.  The  interest  taken,  for  many  surround- 
ing miles,  in  this  extraordinary,  and,  I  believe  I 
may  add,  unique  undertaking,  was  immense  ;  and 
it  was  supposed  that,  independently  of  the  contents 
of  carriages,  there  were  considerably  more  than  a 
thousand  horsemen  in  the  field,  about  seven  hundred 
of  them  clad  in  scarlet. 

Mytton,  as  usual,  was  resolved  to  make  him- 
self conspicuous  in  more  ways  than  one  on  this 
memorable  occasion  ;  and  on  the  preceding  evening 
he  arrived  at  Whitchurch,  to  be  near  to  the  scene 
of  action,  and  where  he  had  ordered  the  best 
dinner  that  could  be  provided  for  himself  and 
two  friends,  who  accompanied  him.  But  the 
dinner  at  Whitchurch  and  its  evils,  were  not 
"  sufficient  for  the  day  "  ;  he  ordered  his  carriage 
in  the  evening,  and  drove  to  the  village  of  Wren- 
bury,  the  rendezvous  of  the  difFerent  packs,  and 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  199 

where  a  main  of  cocks  was  being  fought.  Hav- 
ing seen  what  was  going  on  there,  he  returned 
to  his  quarters  at  Whitchurch,  and  after  draw- 
ing a  commercial  traveller  from  his  bed,  and 
dosing  him  with  wine,  retired  at  length  to  his 
own. 

The  place  of  meeting  to  decide  this  important 
affair,  was  Shavington-hall,  the  seat  of  the  late 
Viscount  Kilmorey,  who,  although  but  little  of 
a  fox-hunter  himself,  was  a  great  promoter  of 
the  sport,  by  his  strict  preservation  of  foxes ; 
and  he  left  an  excellent  name  behind  him, 
as  one  of  "the  right  sort."  The  time  fixed 
was  eleven  o'clock,  and  at  that  hour  a  scene 
highly  interesting  to  sportsmen  presented  it- 
self, and  indeed  to  all  descriptions  of  persons 
who  witnessed  it ;  for  it  is  well  known  that 
there  is  nothing  which  adds  more  to  scenery, 
fine  scenery,  which  this  park  affords,  than  a 
numerously  attended  pack  of  hounds,  in  motion. 

The  modus  operandi  was  this : — Six  couples  out  of 
each  pack  were  selected  for  the  trial,  forming  a  pro- 
perly sized  pack,  and  they  appeared  in  the  field, 
attended  by  their  respective  huntsmen,  namely,  Will 
Head,  for  the  Cheshire  ;  John  Wrigglesworth,  now 
huntsman  to  Mr.  Smythe  Owen,  for  the  Shropshire  ; 


200  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

and  Charles  Wells,  for  Mr.  Wicksted's — Will  Head 
acting  as  leading  huntsman  of  the  day,  by  reason  of 
its  being  the  country  which  his  hounds  claimed  as 
their  own  as  well  as  Cheshire  being  the  senior  pack. 

These  being  the  best  days  of  the  Tomkinsons, 
the  Gleggs,  the  Brookes,  Jack  Ford,  and  sundry 
other  first  flight  Cheshire  men,  it  may  naturally  be 
imagined,  that  a  spirit  of  rivalry  amongst  men  would 
accompany  the  trial  of  speed  in  hounds,  and  that 
Mytton  would  be  amongst  the  foremost  to  distinguish 
himself.  That  he  came  prepared  to  do  so,  was 
evident  by  the  fact  of  his  having  had  his  capital 
Hit-or-Miss  mare  reserved  for  this  particular 
occasion,  orders  having  been  given  to  his  groom  to 
11  have  her  right  fit  to  go."  l 

Precisely  at  the  hour  of  twelve,  the  business  of  the 
day  commenced  ;  the  pack  were  thrown  into  what  is 
called  the  Big- wood,  in  Shavington-park,  from  which 
a  fox  almost  immediately  broke,  and,  having  stood 

1  Many  of  your  readers  will  remember  my  account,  in 
my  Shropshire  Tour,  of  this  Hit-or-Miss  mare  having 
carried  Mr.  Mytton,  superbly,  throughout  a  capital  run 
of  an  hour  and  forty  minutes,  with  Sir  Bellingham 
Graham's  hounds,  from  Babbins-wood,  and  over  a  very 
severe  country.  Sir  Bellingham  confessed,  that  he  had 
never  before  been  so  ridden  away  from,  as  he  was  on  that 
day  by  Mytton,  and  that  is  saying  enough  for  the  merits 
of  the  Hit-or-Miss  mare. 


^ 


1 


^ 


v 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  201 

before  them  for  thirty  minutes,  at  a  very  severe 
pace,  was  lost  near  the  village  of  Clovely. 
Mytton  very  soon  got  the  lead,  and  very 
soon  lost  it,  and  nearly  his  life  at  the  same 
time ;  for  coming  to  a  deep  sunk,  fence, 
or  ha-ha,  at  which  there  was  a  high  and  stiff 
rail,  on  the  rising  side,  which  he  gallantly 
charged,  his  mare  fell  and  gave  him  a  severe 
fall,  —  in  addition  to  his  being  much  hurt  by 
another  person's  horse,  that  had  followed  him, 
tumbling  upon  him,   and   crushing  him.     "  Now, 

FOR      THE       HONOUR       OF       SHROPSHIRE,"       Said      he, 

when  he  rode  at  this  fence,  which  indicated  two 
things  ;  First,  that  he  considered  the  fence  some- 
thing Hke  a  stopper ;  and  secondly,  that  he 
was  determined  not  to  be  beaten  by  any  man 
in  the  field,  so  long  as  his  mare  could  keep 
on  her  legs.  This  fall,  however,  shook  him 
much,  and  although  he  remounted  and  went  on — 
bleeding  and  bare-headed,  for  his  hat  was  too  much 
crushed  to  be  worth  picking  up,  the  horse  that 
followed  him  having  alighted  on  it — he  was  forced 
to  content  himself  with  following  a  leader  for  the 
remainder  of  this  day. 

Not  satisfied  with  the  burst,  the  rival  hounds  drew 
the  covers  in  Combermere-paik,  the  seat  of  Lord 
Combermere,  and  found  a  second  fox,  which  took 


202  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

them  a  ring  of  about  twelve  miles,  in  which 
some  excellent  hunting  was  displayed ;  but  it  being 
ascertained  that  they  were  running  a  heavy  vixen 
(i.e.,  a  bitch  fox,  in  whelp),  they  were  whipped 
off  without  tasting  blood.  As  to  which  lot 
of  hounds  bore  off  the  palm,  it  would  not 
only  be  invidious,  but  now  useless  to  say, 
neither  does  my  informant  state  that  fact ;  — 
and,  observe,  reader !  the  foregoing  account  has 
been  forwarded  to  me  from  Shropshire,  for 
insertion,  and  is  not  the  result  of  my  own 
personal  observation,  as  I  was  not  present  on 
the  memorable  occasion  which  gave  birth  to 
it.  I  have,  however,  reason  to  believe  it  is  a 
true  one,  inasmuch  as  it  is  quite  characteristic  of 
the  man. 

The  stables  and  boxes  at  Halston  have  the 
doors  covered  with  a  greater  or  less  number  of 
plates,  as  the  shoes  worn  by  racers  are  called. 
They  are  painted  light  blue,  with  white  in  the 
centre,  in  which  are  printed  all  the  horses'  names, 
the  stakes,  &c.  won  by  them  in  every  year  up  to 
1827  or  later.  Each  stake  or  race  won,  has  a 
plate  to  record  it,  and  they  are  arranged  by 
half  dozens  in  a  line  across  the  breadth  of 
the  door.  The  racing  career  of  any  individual 
horse  is  recorded   along  with  others  on  the  door 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON 


203 


of  the  particular  stable  or  box  he  once  occupied,  and 
there  are  nine  stables  and  box  doors  covered  with 
plates  in  the  following  order. 

First  set  of  stables, 

on  the  door  are  recorded  27  Stakes  in  as  many  plates 


Second 

ditto 

"7 

ditto 

ditto 

Third 

ditto 

18 

ditto 

ditto 

Fourth 

ditto 

24 

ditto 

ditto 

Fifth 

ditto 

5 

ditto 

ditto 

Sixth 

ditto 

6 

ditto 

ditto 

Seventh 

ditto 

16 

ditto 

ditto 

Eighth 

ditto 

26 

ditto 

ditto 

Ninth 

ditto 

26 
Total  165 

ditto 

Stakes. 

ditto 

But  there  are  many  stakes  not  recorded  on  the 
doors,  for  I  am  told  none  have  been  entered  since 
the  year  1827. 

The  following  horses,  &c,  are  recorded  to  have 
won  stakes,  plates,  and  matches,  to  the  number 
specified  against  their  respective  names,  viz  : — 


Langolee    . 
Singlepeeper 
Fox-huntress 
Chance  . 
Sir  Oliver  . 
Jovial     . 
Milo  Mare 


Brought  forivard 
Harriet  Wilson 
Mandeville 
Ruler     . 
Libertine 
Victorine   . 
Mallet  .      . 
Whittington 


40 


204 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON 


Brought  forward  40 

Brought  forivard 

118 

Alexander ....     2 

Bowsprit    . 

1 

Habberley . 

•   J3 

Colt  by  Amadis    . 

3 

Cara  Spoza 

2 

Oswestry    . 

6 

Ashbourn  .     . 

1 

Ludford 

4 

Anti-radical    . 

17 

Geranium    . 

3 

Banker .     .     . 

4 

Cannon-ball  Filly 

1 

Ostrich      .     . 

2 

3 

Comrade    . 

1 

George  the  Third 

1 

Colt  by  Bustard 

2 

7 

Euphrates. 

16 

Sir  William 

4 

Flexible     . 

6 

Chancellor  . 

1 

Longwaist 

5 

1 

Tattoo .     .     . 

2 

Paradigm     . 

1 

Handel       .      . 

2 

Berghill.     .     .      . 

6 

Claudius    . 

2 

Comte  dArtois     . 

5 

Paul  Potter    .     . 

1 

118 


165 


The  foregoing  account  has  been  sent  to  me  by  a 
Shropshire  gentleman,  and  I  have  every  reason  to 
believe  it  to  be  correct. 


The  following  lines  on  the  death  of  Mr. 
Mytton,  were  added  by  the  publisher,  the  author 
being  unknown  to  me.  Let  the  merits  of 
them  speak  for  themselves ;  it  only  remains  for 
me  to  remark,  that  they  breathe  the  effusions  of 
a  warm  and  friendly  heart,  and  display  a  know- 
ledge of  the  character  of  the  man  they  are  intended 
to  commemorate. 


LIFE  OF  MYTTON  205 

ON  THE  DEATH  OF  JOHN  MYTTON,  Esq. 

"The  earth 
Owns  no  such  spirit  as  his." 

Manfred. 

Hast  thou  e'er  trod  Italia's  classic  land  ? 
Paus'd  by  her  temples,  e'en  in  ruins  grand  ? 
Mark'd  the  rude  weed's  obnoxious  shadow  thrown 
O'er  sculptured  forms,  the  gods  themselves  might 

own  ? 
Beheld  vile  reptiles  desecrate  the  shrine 
That  pious  worshippers  had  deem'd  divine  ? 
Heard  the  loud  tempest  give  its  anger  tongue 
Where  once  devotion's  holy  chauntings  rung  ? 
Mark'd  where  the  dove  once  rear'd  her  peaceful 

brood 
The  hungry  vulture  hold  his  feast  of  blood  ? 
If  so,  what  felt  ye  at  this  game  of  fate  ? 
Disgust  or  pity  ?  fond  regret  or  hate  ? 
There  needs  no  sound  to  tell  thy  proud  reply, — 
Thy  soul's  indignant  answer's  in  thine  eye ! 
And  shall  (however  beautiful)  a  stone 
Claim  from  our  hearts  all  sympathy  alone  ? 
Shall  the  unequall'd  fabric  of  a  man, 
Built  upon  nature's  most  exalted  plan, 


ao6  LIFE  OF  MYTTON 

Tho'  razed  by  tempests  and  by  weeds  defac'd, 
Tho'  carrion  vultures  have  the  dove  displac'd, 
Tho'  noisome  reptiles  from  their  slimy  springs 
Pollute  the  heart's  most  holy,  treasur'd,  things — 
Say,  shall  we  coldly  gaze  upon  this  scene, 
Nor  mourn  the  loveliness  that  once  has  been  ? 
Aye,  mourn  as  man  may  mourn,  but  not  with  tears, 
His  age  of  passion  thro'  a  life  of  years  ; 
Mourn  !   but  no  tears — they  honour  not  the  grave 
Of  such  as  Mytton  was,  the  kind,  the  brave. 
His  was  a  restless  soul — too  wildly  prone 
To  wear  the  show  of  vices  not  his  own, 
To  mock  the  love  his  heart  most  dearly  priz'd, 
To  scorn  the  lesson  wisdom  most  advis'd, 
And,  in  the  maddening  poison  of  the  bowl, 
Drown   in   one   mighty  draught — heart — health — 

and  soul. 
His  was  the  hand  most  ready  to  bestow, 
The  good  effected  all  he  ask'd  to  know ; 
The  friend  unchang'd — the  foe  that  scorn'd  to  sue, 
Himself  the  only  victim  that  he  slew. 
His  vices  all  deformities  of  art, 
Whilst  every  virtue  centered  in  his  heart. 
For  such  we  mourn — and  be  our  grief  expi  ess'd 
By  faults  forgotten  and  by  good  confess'd  ! 


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